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WIN PRIZES FROM DAIWA,PRESTON INNOVATIONS,GARBOLINOAND DYNAMITE! £4.75 SEPTEMBER 2021

THE BIG ISSUE

AGAINST THE CLOCK WE JOIN DES SHIPP FOR A MATCH AT MANOR FARM LEISURE

NITS U S E H C T A C Y A M Y AND GLER G A W T E L L E P E H T ON

FULL FLOW CATCH MORE RIVER BARBEL ON THE FEEDER WITH TOP ADVICE FROM NICK SPEED

TACKLE TESTED

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BILLY HADRIAN ANDY DARREN AMER LEANNE MARK WILL ROB KYE MATT WHITTLE • POWER • COX • JAWAD • KNOTT • CREE • RAISON • PERKINS • JERROM • GODFREY • MAKIN

A DHP PUBLICATION

JON ARTHUR EXPLAINS WHY YOUR KEEPNET IS A FISH ATTRACTING FEATURE

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FOLLOW US TO FIND OUT MORE

::: Meet the rest of the team

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david.haynes@dhpub.co.uk Art Editor Paul Evans

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SEPTEMBER 2021

Magazine Manager Justin Fox

I

t was with great disappointment that I recently read Steve Ringer’s Facebook posts giving his account of this year’s World Feeder Championships in France.

Not disappointment at the result, but at the attitude of the few who hide behind the brick wall of social media to inflict their negative opinions and uneducated views.

These are the people often referred to as ‘keyboard warriors’ for they have nothing better to do than patrol social media in its various forms and post comments criticising people, teams or organisations because they know they can’t be touched.

They would never say these things face to face because that would take guts, and these clueless cowards have none.

The feeder team had a bad result in France, it happens, and the lads would have been hurting like hell because they’re all winners and have given everything they’ve got representing this country.

So for the benefit of these idiots, let’s state facts. Firstly, fishing in another country is completely different to fishing in the UK. The fish are different, methods are different, baits are different, rules are different and even the venue itself could be completely alien to the venues we fish over here. Occasionally there will be a venue that suits our lads and the way they fish, but more often than not it’s a steep learning curve to get to grips with a venue with a just a few days of practice before the event.

Secondly, these guys have got in the England team because they’re the best feeder anglers in the country, a fact that seems to evade the keyboard warriors.

For our lads to get even better on the international stage we need to have matches in this country that are fished to CIPS rules where bloodworm and joker is allowed and with bait limits, just like they do in Europe. Our lads are falling behind and when they get to a venue like the one in France that was very technical by all accounts and bloodworm and joker dominated, they’re fishing with one hand tied behind their backs, it’s that much of a disadvantage.

Finally, to all those who criticise and think they know it all, get yourself on some feeder matches and see how you get on against the best feeder anglers in the country. Try getting behind the lads for a change instead of spitting the dummy when the team doesn’t come back with a medal. If you haven’t been there and done it, you really have no idea what you’re talking about. Next year’s event is in the Ukraine and although it’s likely going to be tough once again, Dean Barlow and the lads will already be focusing on it.

justin.fox@dhpub.co.uk Tel 07813 327966

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| 05

Contents

September contents 8 FAST FLOWING FUN

24 DEPTH FINDERS

We join top river angler Hadrian Whittle on his favourite River Wye, where even though sport is often prolific, there are still days when hard work is the key to catching.

Fish respond differently in the way they feed depending on the depth of water – Darren Cox explains why understanding this is so important.

80 AGAINST THE CLOCK 14 ANDY POWER’S DIARY RiverFest and the UK Champs take priority for Andy this month as he travels the country in search of match fishing glory.

18 VENUE DETECTIVE

COVER STORY

Andy May visits one of Staffordshire’s most stunning commercial venues, Izaak Walton Fishery, to sample the sport on offer on the venue’s Bottom Lake.

06 | Match Fishing

COVER STORY

We follow Des Shipp’s every move as he tackled a midweek open on the Island Pool at Manor Farm Leisure near Evesham.

86 MAKING A ‘PIG’ OF THINGS The maggot feeder, or Trent Pig as it was once called, has gone out of vogue for some reason. Rob Perkins sings its praises and show us why it’s still a deadly method.

92 PRESTON INNOVATIONS UK POLE CHAMPIONSHIP – QUALIFIER TWO It’s the second qualifier for our brand new pole competition, held at Packington Somers Fishery in the Midlands.

96 BROWNING HOTRODS Now team fishing is back up and running so is Kye Jerrom and this month he recounts how Hotrods fared in the recent Division One National on the Grand Union Canal.

100 DYNAMITE BAIT CLINIC All your bait related questions are answered

by Dynamite Baits’ expert team of top match angling consultants.

104 MATT’S MONTH The Division One National and a festival on the River Tees have been occupying Matt Godfrey this month.

108 SONUBAITS VETERANS CHAMPIONSHIP It’s always one of our most popular events of the year so find out how this year’s match was won and lost.

112 MAKIN’S MEMORIES More fishy tales and plenty of banter from Thailandbased former top match angler Billy Makin.

TO SUBSCRIB E

TO

34 34 THE PRINCE OF THE RIVER

TURN TO PAGE 94 FOR G TACKLE AND M REAT ON SAVING OFFE EYRS!

COVER STORY

There’s nothing Nick Speed likes more than catching barbel on the River Trent, and we pick his brains to discover the best way of catching them.

42 ELIMINATING THE LAGOON LINERS Groundbait is a key ingredient to catching a net of bream but as Amer Jawad shows, it’s more than just adding water to the mix.

42

48 FEEDER ESSENTIALS + COMPETITION Preston Innovations’ Mag Store Rig Sticks and System Boxes make hook preparation and storage child’s play and an essential for all feeder anglers. PLUS, we’re giving you the chance to win some for yourself.

POLE FISHING

48

52 69 COMPETITION: DAIWA Here’s your chance to get your hands on a fantastic new MATCHWINNER MW1 Power Margin pole from Daiwa, worth £549!

52 LEAVE THE BARRELS IN THE BAG

74 NEW GEAR

Leanne Knott sees a lot of anglers buying 16m poles but reckons that by always fishing to this length it is costing them a lot of fish.

Plenty of new tackle on show for you here – makes you want to go to your local tackle shop…

58

77 COMPETITION: GARBOLINO

58 MEAT TREAT

We’re giving away a superb Essential Match 11ft 6in Carp waggler rod thanks to those nice people at Garbolino.

Meat is one of those baits that all fish like to eat. Mark Cree explains why he loves to use it and how he gets the most out of it.

64 64 KEEP YOUR COMPOSURE FOR F1 PASTE SUCCESS Will Raison explains that you need a cool head and plenty of bottle if you want to catch a big bag of F1s on paste.

70 THE KEEPNET SWIM

COVER STORY

Jon Arthur analyses a close-in feature in everyone’s peg that should never be overlooked – your keepnet!

70

78 UP CLOSE: MIDDY Tom Scholey gives the new Middy Xtreme M3 MK II margin pole a workout at Lindholme Lakes.

JU LY ISSU E MAP Dual Distance Rods And Reels 1st Paul Maxwell, 2nd Steven Lane, 3rd Andrew Moss www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 07

River Float Tactics

s there anything better in the realms of river fishing than float fishing fast, tree-lined river glides through the glorious summer months? If there is then book me in! Today we are on a beautiful stretch of the River Wye near Rosson-Wye, where river levels are low and it is the first day of a heatwave. With the sun high in the sky I expect the fishing to be quite tricky, but by working hard and making lots of subtle changes through the session I should be able to put a few fish together.

I

The Peg

HADRIAN W HITT Age: 50 LE Lives: RossSponsors: On-Wye Daiwa MF A master insays: the river fishin art of g

FAST G N I W FLO FUN!

This swim is a real River Wye beauty. I have actually waded out from the bank and I am fishing back towards the bank, which actually used to be an island but over time the river has straightened out. In days gone by, when the river was up, I used to fish for chub in the gulley that has now sadly gone, catching some huge bags using long pole fished across with carp rigs. Anyway, back to the present day!

My plan today is to run the float along the tree line targeting chub and barbel. This peg is more like a small river than the mighty Wye – in fact it’s very similar to Pegs 30 and 31 on the River Severn at Bridgnorth, not quite as quick though! Plumbing up the gulley you’ll find about six feet of water shallowing up to around five feet at the end of the run. In previous years, the river behind me was bank to bank with ranunculus weed with the swim we are fishing the only clear run.

Unfortunately, the river is now almost devoid of weed all the way through its length, which is thought to be caused by unhealthily

08 | Match Fishing

RIVER WYE Ross-on-Wye ng Club ss-on-Wye Angli Controlled by Ro .uk .co lub gc www.rossanglin

his favourite n o e tl it h W n a ri are ngler Had We join top river a though sport is often prolific, there . even hing River Wye, where when hard work is the key to catc still plenty of days : Hadrian Whittle Words en Pics: Ryan Hayd

Hadrian upped the feed and was rewarded with this chub.

The Missile – a perfect float for easing tthe bait through the swim.

high phosphate levels, a serious concern for match and pleasure anglers alike.

Hopefully it will be a short term issue and the Environment Agency will act to get the phosphates down to acceptable levels.

Even though the weed has gone, the tree roots and branches are still very much still there so there is no place on swims like this for light lines and small hooks.

The Tackle It’s a nice and simple approach for today’s session and I’ve set up two 14ft Airity X45 float rods coupled with TDX reels and some prototype 0.20mm floating line that’s about 7lb breaking strain.

The first rod is rigged up with an 8No4 Woody’s dome topped stick; these thick tips are a must on fast, turbulent swims as I only want to be striking at proper bites. It can also be very hard to see your float in fast water pegs, the fact this one is tree lined makes it a lot easier to pick up but in open water glides it can be very difficult.

This float is shotted with a string of No8s and these are generally tightly spaced in the bottom third of the rig.

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 09

River Float Tactics

A quick-change swivel then has a 35 to 40cm hooklength attached. The idea of this rig is for it to be heavy enough to control through the peg and slow down as required, but light enough for the hook bait to lift and fall enticingly as we hold it back then let it go through the swim.

The second rod is the same as the first in terms of the rod, reel and line, but this time with a 4g DH Angling Missile. The 4g size is about right for today but I carry them up to 10g for deeper or faster runs. This rig is shotted with an olivette around

65 centimetres from the hook then I have three No8s against the quickchange swivel and a 20cm hooklength. Hooks are size 12 Hydra 110s tied to 0.18mm tournament rig line hooklengths. This rig is for bossing the flow and keeping the bait down near the bottom.

So we have two simple rigs that will cover a wide range of presentation options, from running the stick float through off bottom at the pace of the river, to fishing 30 centimetres overdepth with the Missile and inching the bait through the peg.

“There is no place on swims like this for light lines and small hooks.”

Bait First name on the bait team sheet must be hemp, which is a nice heavy particle that chub and barbel just love! Second on the sheet are casters, they sink faster than maggots and are the perfect complement to hemp. Then we come to our game changers, which are a couple of tins of 8mm meat.

This will be fed sparingly and used as a hook bait if small fish become a nuisance. Maggots also make the team and if there are no small fish about they are often the best bait.

However, and a word of warning, in really turbulent

swims they can get washed a long way downstream so be careful when feeding them that they don’t take your fish completely out of range. They are a great bait for reviving the swim though! Finally, on the subs bench we have some pellets and these will be used if I’m really struggling with small fish, even on the meat.

The swim plumbs up perfectly and due to the pace of the water I will feed directly in front of me to start with. Always be prepared to change this – if the fish are too far down then start feeding further up, and if they sit too high

A big bulk is required to get the bait down.

Heavy lines are needed.

A thick dome top can be seen in turbulent water.

Hadrian and his unique looking swim.

10 | Match Fishing

before you can get your float under full control then start feeding further down. I almost always cast downstream so that I can get fully behind the float from the start of the run; the only caveat to this rule is when there is a gap in the tree straight in front on you allowing you to run your rig tight to the far bank vegetation.

To kick off the session I fire in about a pint of hemp and just a few casters and bits of meat; I want to have a few runs down before I start feeding properly. On some hard days you may

Plenty of these in the Wye at the moment.

“The key to keeping fish coming on these fast water pegs is to mix up the feeding, make alterations to the depth and shotting to keep bites ticking over.”

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 11

River Float Tactics

Meat is a great bait if small fish are present…

Hadrian will always have some pellets in the bag.

… and it’s great for barbel.

Maggot is great on the hook.

Plenty of loose feed.

Another small fish falls to the maggot.

Loose feeding meat can trigger a response.

Hemp and caster is Hadrian’s number-one bait combo.

only catch a few early fish so it’s always prudent to have half a dozen runs through before upping the feed. I’ve started the session on the stick and maggot, but to my surprise six runs later I am still fishless. I would have bet my house on catching from the off here today! A switch to meat brings a 6oz chub, but no bites follow so it’s time

12 | Match Fishing

to start moving through the gears and I feed four big pouches of maggots to try and drag some fish up the swim and I also increase the regular feed to two pouches of hemp and casters every run through.

Almost as far down the swim as I can see and the dome topped stick dips out of sight and at last a decent fish is hooked. It’s

a chub of about 1lb 8oz and things start hotting up with another seven or eight smaller chub following quickly before another lull in the action.

The key to keeping fish coming on these fast water pegs is to mix up the feeding, make alterations to the depth and shotting to keep bites ticking over.

Today I’ve been fishing just off bottom but will now add 15 centimetres to the depth and attack the swim with another three or four pouches of maggots and slow the rig right up.

Almost immediately I’m into a hard fighting, small but perfectly formed barbel of around 14oz.

After catching a few more I start to get plagued by small fish and this is a common problem nowadays on rivers up and down the country. It’s time for the Missile to come out, which I have set 15 centimetres overdepth to start with. I backwind this heavier rig down the swim at various paces to see if I can find some better fish and this brings another run of small barbel on a pieces

of meat then ‘clunk’, I hook a proper barbel that does all it can to crawl up the far bank but fortunately I’m able to turn the fish and play the rest of the fight out in open water. This beauty is about 4lb 8oz but sadly it was the only one I managed during the session, which wasn’t too surprising as the sun is now high in the sky behind me, meaning there is no shade at all to fish in.

The rest of the session is a very typical fast water one with runs of fish coming to both stick and Missile followed by lulls. Near the end of the session I really up the feed and this brings a really good run of small barbel; it’s almost like you have to aggravate them into feeding at times. I’ve seen this tactic work for barbel big and small many times, not just on the Wye but also on the Severn and the Trent!

By the end of the session I’ve amassed over 20lb of fish, not a big weight by Wye standards but one that had to be grafted for in tough conditions, which is in many ways more rewarding than those easy 70lb to 80lb days.

Over 20lb for Hadrian on a difficult day.

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Conclusion As I expected, working hard proved the key and pulse feeding to get bites has been vital. It’s key to know when to attack and when to cut back – stopping feeding completely for 10 or 15 minutes is also a good tactic.

The best hook bait was maggot early and again late, with meat dominant through the middle of the session.

If it had been a match then I would have also set up a straight lead rod for fishing a large piece of punched hair-rigged meat around the swim – I am sure that this would of found me another large fish or two in this session!

Upping the feed towards the end in a match situation can often get you those couple of vital extra fish; try and leave it late though, because it will often result in a short flurry of action before your swim is blown completely.

A beauty… biggest barbel of the day.

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ANGLER FILE • Age: 31 • Lives: Wells • Sponsors: Preston Innovations, Sonubaits • MF says: Always in the big matches

It may seem a familiar story as Andy Power tries to qualify for yet another big-money prestige event, but this time he’s on the river. fter fishing mainly qualifiers on commercial fisheries this summer there was one match I was really looking forward to this month – the RiverFest qualifier on my local Bristol Avon, at Newbridge! It was so nice to just be sat in beautiful surroundings, without even being able to see the next angler!

I wish I had more time to fish RiverFest qualifiers, but since they normally clash with the other big qualifiers I’m doing, I don’t normally get the chance. Luckily for me my local qualifier didn’t clash, so this was to be my only ticket of the year. I like to think I know this venue very well. I used to fish

A

Peg 77 at Newbridge.

14 | Match Fishing

lots of team matches on it throughout the year, when I was with Preston Innovation Thatchers. I have even qualified for RiverFest here before with a 29lb catch on the pole of mainly roach and hybrids on hemp!

At the draw it was nice to see plenty of friendly faces.

It was also nice to actually draw my own peg for only the second time this year.

I drew Peg 77, which is four pegs below Newton St Loe bridge. It is not a particularly notable area and many of the regulars turned their noses up at it, but I remembered back to the times when I fished it, and normally early on in the season there can be bream caught on the pegs

Bream means groundbait.

upstream of me, near the bridge. I seemed to be the only one to be confident of catching a few!

My peg was a typical peg on this stretch, lined with trees, and 12 feet deep on the pole line. Target species on this river are mainly roach, bream and a few chublets. My section was in with the notorious 50s, known for bream, so my match had to be based around fishing for them to give me a chance of qualifying!

We had just come out of a heatwave, with thunderstorms the day before, so the river had a very slight tinge of colour to it, as well as a bit of extra flow from what would

have been a very sluggish river during the week, so it looked very fishy! From past experience I felt my best chance of bream would be on the pole line on these pegs, as it was a nice depth and was catching the flow nicely, which can be very important. I also set up a couple of feeder rods, an 11 and 12ft Supera for fishing a groundbait feeder threequarters of the way across, again for bream.

On the pole line I set up 2 and 3g round bodied floats for running a bait through.

I then set up a 4g flat float, but this was a little light to hold back with, as it was lifting out, so I set up a 5g too, which seemed right for holding still. I left the 4g set

This should do for starte rs.

up to edge the bait through at slow pace and cover my options.

My groundbait was mixed the night before, with bream in mind; I’d mixed together some Sonubaits Sweet Skimmer, River and Lake, with a bit of Fluoro Rocks and F1 corn drilled into it.

Then in a separate bucket I had some soil.

At the start I kept some groundbait back for the feeder, then added around 30 per cent soil to some groundbait, added a pint of casters, a tin of Natural Hemp, and half a pint of chopped worms – plenty of feed to hold some bream and keep them feeding.

The soil was to add weight to the mix and slow the breakdown. This was made into 20 balls ready to be thrown in at the start on the pole line at 13 metres. It pays to be positive on this river – the bream shoals can be massive at times, I think the match record is over 180lb!

After feeding both the pole and feeder line at the start, I was surprised not to get any bites, except from a few small perch. Normally

there are a few roach around in the first hour, but it was a little early in the year for them to show on every peg.

It was a really slow match, alternating between the pole and feeder, with only a few perch and small chublets to show for it, and no signs of bigger fish.

With an hour and a half to go I decided I needed to be more positive and feed both the pole and feeder. I felt there was no longer much

had started to jump off the bridge, which I felt could move some fish around!

With exactly one hour left I went back on the pole with the 5g flat float and a piece of worm six inches overdepth. The float buried, 11 hollo came streaming out, yes! Oh, another perch!

Luckily the next one was a bream! Followed by another!

After 20 minutes without another, I fed another ball,

“My September now looks insane, with a big final every weekend! “ bait in my peg, and perhaps the smaller fish had robbed the worms and casters. If I did have a visit from a few bream, I needed some bait to hold them. On the pole line I cupped in three balls with plenty of worms and casters, then 10 big feeders on the feeder line.

I left the pole line alone for 30 minutes, as I felt this was the line they settle on if they came. Around this time kids

which resulted in another large bream. then with two minutes of the match left I hooked another large bream, probably 8lb, which I thankfully landed after the whistle!

Those four big bream, plus my other fish, weighed 31lb to win the match, and qualify for another RiverFest Final! My September now looks insane, with a big final every weekend! A big well

done to Mark Harper who qualified from the early pegs with 27lb, which I think was seven smaller bream! Also well done to Nick Chedzoy who won the other section and qualified, with 18lb of mainly roach!

I’d best dig out my river kit ready for the Trent – I certainly won’t have time to practise, so hopefully I will get lucky with some more bream!

£100k KO match!

After getting through against Gary O’Shea at Todber Manor last month, I found myself drawn against another former team mate in Nick Chedzoy for the next round of the £100k knockout competition. You may remember that name from qualifying for RiverFest earlier – he’s on fire!

Nick, or “Flanders”, had the home draw, so he decided to take me to Summerhayes Fishery, on an open match on Long’s Lake, a lake I had never fished before. I drew on Peg 15, and Nick was within sight on Peg 12 on a point.

The lake was a snake type lake, full of carp from 2 to

Mark Harper (left) and Nick Chedzoy will be joining me in the final.

The flat float.

RiverFest final here I come!

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 15

Andy Power

Peg 15 on Long’s Lake. ???.

???????

A red hot Summerhayes.

s Warm weather mean . ed ow meat where it’s all

5lb in average. My peg was 17 metres to the island, I also had a nice, but snaggy looking margin that I was told was a tackle graveyard!

In the end it was a simple match, fishing mainly to the island. It plumbed up deeper than I would have liked at two and a half feet. I started off feeding small balls of Power Scopex groundbait through a Cad pot but it wasn’t until I swapped to a mix with groundbait and 2mm pellets that I started catching. It gave the mix some extra weight, and some feed to keep the fish in a depth that was deeper than they wanted to be in. A change to worm on the hook meant I could keep the rig still on the uneven bottom too. My rig was on an 11 Dura Slip elastic, 0.17 Power main line, a 4x12 Carp Shallow with all the shot above a 4in hooklength of 0.13mm and a

16 | Match Fishing

size 14 GPM-B hook.

After a busy day shipping in and out, I weighed 129lb, to Nick’s 83lb, meaning I was through to the next round, and we also came first and second in the match, so a nice bonus.

The next round I drew against Dave Romain,

beating me by fishing pellets shallow to the reeds. I was reluctant to do this, as I didn’t want to potentially mess my peg up with bait everywhere, so I switched to fishing meat to the far bank, which luckily worked for me. I fed everything through a Cad pot and

just one more match, and I am through to a potential final for £100k! I will be gutted if I have to miss the FeederMasters final in order to fish it on the same day though, but at least it’s a nice consolation prize if I don’t manage to progress through the last match!

“I had the BT Sport cameras on me at the start, and a peg full of carp on the top that I simply could not catch!” another top commercial angler. I was at home this time, so I gave him the option of Summerhayes again since it had been good to me. This time it was red hot, over 30ºC! We actually drew next to each other on Pegs 30 and 32, so it was very easy to keep tabs!

This time my previous tactics didn’t work, and for the first hour Dave was

caught both on and off the bottom. Whenever I felt they were off the bottom, I would feed meat that had pushed through a cutter several times, to create a slower sinking feed.

It seemed to work well, I even packed up 30 minutes early as I was struggling with the heat, but I weighed 186lb to win the match, to Dave’s 68lb. That means

UK Angling Champs 2021 I am now halfway through this year’s UK Angling Champs. After winning for the third time last year, I was keen for a chance to make it four!

Round One was at Hallcroft Fisheries, and I drew Peg 70 on Inner Moat, which was an end peg on my bank. This lake is a big horseshoe shaped lake, and

Peg 28 on Pool 1 at The Glebe.

Hallcroft section sheet.

Peg 70 on Hallcroft’s Inner Moat.

we had anglers on both banks. It holds some very large old carp, so you don’t need many bites on this venue!

It was a warm, muggy day; last year I caught most of my fish shallow on a

similar sort of day, and this year was no different. I alternated between the pole and pellet waggler shallow, at times casting to cruising fish to get bites. I caught just nine carp, but they were a decent size to weigh 95lb,

Glebe section sheet.

winning the section just ahead of fellow Southwest angler Dan White, who caught 20 small carp from the other end peg to weigh 91lb. A nice start! Although getting home at 1am after a late weigh in and long drive wasn’t ideal!

The next round was at The Glebe, near Leicester.

Another warm day, so I expected another similar match, only to be proven wrong! I drew Peg 28 on Pool 1. I was also surprised to be among yet more Southwest anglers in the shape of Craig Edmonds and Mark Wynne! Hopefully we will be rewarded with a closer venue next year after all this travelling!

I had the BT Sport cameras on me at the start, and a peg full of carp on the top that I simply could not catch!

Further down the section, where the wind had blown some scum on the water,

the fish seemed happier to feed and those anglers were catching. Meanwhile, we were sat scratching our heads!

Fortunately, I began to catch the occasional carp on a pellet waggler. Then I swapped to fishing worms and casters on the bottom, which seemed to be like a light switch. Maybe they just wanted natural baits?

In the last hour I caught really well with a worm over potted casters at 14 metres. I weighed 138lb to win the section, with Mark Wynne weighing 130lb. I guess it pays to be adaptable, as I never expected to use those tactics on a day like that!

So, two wins so far, but I know full well how things can quickly change. If I can get through the next round at Decoy unscathed, I will be much happier about my chances, fingers crossed!

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| 17

Andy May visits one of Staffordshire’s most stunning commercial venues, Izaak Walton Fishery, to sample the sport on offer on the venue’s Bottom Lake.

Where To Visit

IZAAK WALTON FISHERY

Izaak Walton Fishery School Lane Chebsey Staffs ST21 6JU 07932 740121/07740 856150 www.izaakwaltonfishery.com izaakwaltonfishery@yahoo.com

O

n most of these venues I visit, the fisheries all have a few lakes that offer different types of fishing, and also it’s lovely to do some rod and line fishing as most of my fishing these days revolves around fishing tight across on snake lakes using the pole, especially when coaching.

18 | Match Fishing

Today though, I’ve bought the Match Fishing cameras to the absolutely stunning Izaak Walton Fishery, a venue I last visited in 2018 when I did a very quick evening feature on the Canal Lake. While doing that feature though, I had a walk round the lakes and really wanted to have a go at the great big wobbly carps in the Bottom Lake,

which contains some absolute units up to 25lb, with lots of doubles!

I honestly can’t believe how much the venue has changed in just three years.

George and Trisha Taylor have created an amazing fishery which is still being worked on, it looks absolutely perfect though as it is! Trisha makes the most amazing

Andy May is a hugely respected, allround match angler, a silver medallist for England at youth level and threetime Matchman Of The Year! He is now arguably the top angling coach in the country and can be booked online at www.fishingcoaching.co.uk.

• 2016 Fish ‘O’ Mania champion • Three-time Kamasan Matchman Of The Year • Youngest ever Matchman Of The Year • World youth individual silver medallist • Full-time angling coach • All-round nice guy!

My pellet waggler setup.

“I honestly can’t believe how much the venue has changed in just three years.”

The café at Izaak Walton does some top-notch grub.

breakfast sandwiches in the lovely on-site tea room. Look out for all the wildlife too, alpacas, guinea fowl, peacocks… and their lovely little three-legged doggy Charlie, ha-ha he’s ace!

George and Trisha really have worked wonders and looking at match results I don’t think the venue has ever fished as

well and that’s testament to how much work they are putting in. I was actually here a few weeks ago filming some Winning Ways stuff and had to come back for another go. A fairly decent angler called Jamie Hughes (ha-ha, sorry mate, you’re the best in the world really!) has been fishing here lots the past few weeks

while fishing in his FA cup style knockout tournament and his weights have been incredible. Four visits and not had less than 100lb every time, back-up weights in matches are superb too. There’s even a lake full of instant wins, which we recently filmed on!

Today it’s all about the Bottom Lake or

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| 19

Out with the pellet wag, wobbly carps here I come!

IZAAK WALTON FISHERY

Inside the café.

“Just three minutes in and I’m off the Method and straight on the waggler, I can’t resist!”

A perfectly formed Method feeder.

speci pool and for me the best way of fishing ever, the waggler. I am going to set up the Method and the bomb as well, but conditions are perfect for the waggler. First off though, it’s time for a bacon and sausage sandwich, which was amaaaaayzinggg and lasted approximately five bites!

BAIT

This rod is the nuts for playing carp.

Another wobbly carp.

20 | Match Fishing

Hmmmm, a little more complicated than the normal tub of pellets or tub of maggots this time and first off, I’ve prepared some 2mm F1 Sweet micro pellets for the Method. I’ve completely soaked around a pint and then just drained the water off so that they are just poking through the top layer of water, then leave them for 20 minutes while you set the rest of your gear up.

Come back to the pellets and put them in a large bowl and give them a stir and I like to then just add a bit of fishmeal groundbait and for me Green Swim Stim is the number-one choice, literally just a little sprinkle and give the pellets another mix and you will have perfect micros for the Method.

I’ve got some 8mm F1 Sweet hard pellets for the waggler and bomb and then just some change of hook baits for the method, but mainly 7mm yellow Wowsers!

RODS Its lovely to do some rod and line fishing and first out of my bag was the waggler. For this style of fishing a 12ft rod is perfect in conjunction with a 2500 to 3000 size reel. As for main line it depends on which floats I’m using; today I’m fishing with unloaded foam floats as it’s not overly windy so I’m using a lighter 0.18mm main line. Sometimes I’ll use 0.16mm if it’s flat calm and I’m fishing with lighter floats.

When I’m using loaded floats, I always use 0.20mm main line, basically it’s all to do with the friction through your rod rings when casting light floats.

I’ve got a 3g Tez Naulls foam float on but if the wind gets too bad, I will use a loaded Keith Easton float. I never used to like foam floats but since having a play with them over the last couple of years they really do make a difference, especially for mugging or for when the wind isn’t too strong.

As my float is fixed, I tie my hooklengths in 2, 3 and 4ft lengths and attach them via a quick-change hooklength swivel. All the hooks, which are size 14 Drennan X Strong, are tied to 0.20mm MAP Power Optimum line. There are no shot down the line, I just want to let the pellet fall naturally.

The ghosties go absolutely mad.

Oooosh!

Not a big fish, but it fought as hard as any.

Next up is the bomb rod, a 10ft rod is perfect for this distance with a 3000 to 4000 size reel and I will be using this to fish underneath the waggler line. I’ve got 0.22mm main line a 6in twizzled loop with a snap-link swivel for my 10g bomb and a quick-change swivel for my 12in 0.20mm hooklength, and I only use either size 10 or 12 Guru QM1 hooks for all my carp feeder/ bomb fishing.

Last of all I set the Method up to cast to the island slightly to my right, around 35 yards away. Again, similar to the bomb rod I’m using 0.22mm main line and a 30g inline Method with a 4in 0.20mm hooklength and a size 12 QM1 with a little bait spike for the Wowsers. Wohoooo I’m ready!

You only need to feed four or five pellets at a time.

THE SESSION To start with I catapult three lots of eight to 10 pellets out around 25 metres straight in front of me and then load the Method up and cast it around two feet off the island.

With that in place I look to leave it no more than five minutes a cast, however, after just two minutes I’ve already got bubbles coming up on my waggler line and also see a massive swirl. That’s it, just three minutes in and I’m off the Method and straight on the waggler, I can’t resist!

When fishing the pellet waggler there are a few different ways I like to do it.

Sometimes feeding first, casting into the bait and leaving it 10 to 20 seconds is best, other times feed just in front of the float and twitch the float back into the feed, other

My hook bait. times leave the float settled and feed round the float.

Occasionally, when the fish are hard to hit, it’s best as soon as you cast in to very slowly wind with your rod low and the fish will hook themselves, again this style you’re only looking for a 15 to 20 second window, it’s all about experimenting on the day to see which is best. Nine times out of 10 though I much prefer to feed and cast into the bait then, once the rig has settled, wind in and repeat the process.

This is where choosing the correct depth is vital; more often than not your bites will come within the first five seconds of your bait landing, especially on more coloured venues, but in clearer water you might wait a little longer and have to fish a little

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 21

IZAAK WALTON FISHERY

deeper. I don’t usually fish any deeper than five feet with the pellet waggler and most of my fishing is done between three and four feet. So, it’s a case of feed six to eight pellets, then quick as you can cast in over the top and make sure you feather the float down so that your hook bait lands past your float and is nice and tight.

I hook a roach around 6oz first chuck before missing a few bites that are probably roach; on my fifth feed I have a swirl immediately and cast into the bait, the carp nails it and I’m in, wohoooooo! This fish feels massive and every shake of its head nearly pulls my arm out of its socket, a massive swirl emerges around 16 metres out and I can just about make out it looks like a huge mirror, just slowly waddling in and feels very heavy. I like to play the fish low, which in turn brings them higher up in the water and makes for netting the fish easier when they are in range, but, just as I was ready to get the net the bloody carp falls off… noooooo! I think everyone in Stafford heard me then!

I was gutted to lose that one but the very next cast I whack into something that goes absolutely nuts and charges off towards the island and tries to make its way round the back; this is where complete confidence in your gear comes in and with fishing heavy once I got the fish into open water, I knew I’d got the upper hand. Again, this fish feels massive, and it swirls around 12 metres out before swimming around in circles under my rod tip, then after five minutes the carp pops up and it looks huuuge. It’s a good 16 or 17lb, possibly bigger and the grin on my face says it all, what a fish!

The fishing is steady away after that and I catch a fish around every 10 minutes, there are lots of roach, big ones too, and skimmers that I’m missing but it’s obvious when a carp comes into the peg – all goes quiet before it all goes off. The fish are sooo angry, even the little ones. I catch a couple of ghost carp that go absolutely nuts and another stunning common around 12lb.

With the fishing this good its pointless changing tactics, the only time I would do that is if things went quiet, that’s when I would cast the bomb over where I’m casting the waggler and see if the fish have dropped down to the bottom, or vacated the swim altogether. If you’re not getting liners then there aren’t many fish there, so the best tactic then is to have a complete rest of that swim

22 | Match Fishing

PREPARING MICROS (THE MAY WAY!) 1 My choice of micros.

2 Fill a tub with water then pour in the pellets.

3 Drain off the excess water so the pellets are just covered.

4 Leave them for 20 minutes.

5 After 20 minutes you need some of this.

6 Pour a couple of handfuls over the pellets.

7 Mix the groundbait in.

8 Perfect micros ready for the Method.

Get in... some rather large fish in this lot!

and try the Method again, but, with the size of some of the fish, it’s just typical steady, patient carp fishing. These are big fish, and you don’t need lots of bites for a big weight.

I do foul hook a few fish that fall off, but a shorter hooklength sorted that out, in the end a 2½ft hooklength was best and leaving the rig just 10 seconds. I tried suspending the bait but didn’t have a bite and also tried the winding technique when I was missing bites but these missed bites I’m 100 per cent sure were from skimmers or roach. I literally could stay here all day, in fact once

we had enough for a catch shot, I stayed on and caught another four, all around 8 or 9lb.

But, how about that for a catch shot, nine beautiful carp for around 75 to 80lb in just a couple of hours.

What a place Izaak Walton Fishery is. If you haven’t been here before you need to come and have a go. Match weights are brilliant and one thing that is noticeable is that you never know where the winner will come from and the back-up weights are great too. When the matches are on this lake, I’m definitely coming back for a go.

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Deep Reservoirs

Depth Finders SNITTERFIELD RESERVOIR Snitterfield, Warwickshire www.leamingtonangling. co.uk

Fish respond differently in the way they feed depending on the depth of water and here Darren Cox explains why understanding this is so important.

There aren’t too many places where you can catch crucians like this.

24 | Match Fishing

DARREN C OX Age Lives: Strat : 55 ford-uponAvo Sponsors: n Garbolino/ Mainline MF Adds a toucsays: h to every m of class ethod

s with most things in match fishing, we are always under the constraints of time. Most matches are five hours long, which can seem forever, but when you are desperately trying to locate the fish in your swim, and especially when others are catching around you, time ticks away very quickly!

By finding the fish quicker, you can then get to work on actually catching them and building a good weight to put yourself in contention.

The most obvious option is feeding multiple lines with different methods, and it can be extremely effective. But it is important to try and understand where and why you are feeding these different lines. If you can understand the logic of what you are doing rather than just doing it, it opens a whole new understanding of what is going on underneath the water’s surface with the fish you are trying to catch.

Fish respond differently in different depths of water. This is probably the most critical point to try and understand in most fishing situations, whatever the venue is these days.

A

“Because of the huge variation in depth at this venue, I feel it is very important to try and set a plan of attack that covers several of these depths.”

Wherever you fish there is always a depth that is better on the day, or just in general for that venue and time of year.

Today I have come to Snitterfield Reservoir near Stratford-upon-Avon to try and demonstrate exactly what I mean. The lake is run by Leamington Angling Association and is just one of their many superb venues around

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| 25

Deep Reservoirs

DARREN’S HOOK BAITS

Warwickshire. The ‘ressie’ is very deep in areas, and being a concrete sided ‘bowl’ the sides just gradually slope away until they hit the lake bottom.

The level also varies a lot, it is an irrigation lake for the adjoining golf course, so the fish get used to the levels changing at certain times of the year. This happens on most reservoirs up and down the country and is a very important point to remember as far as I am concerned.

Starting The Session Because of the huge variation in depth at this

venue, I feel it is very important to try and set a plan of attack that covers several of these depths. I

The crucians fought hard in the deep water. don’t know where the fish will be on the day, I have an idea according to water temperature and weather conditions, but you can

never be certain. So for that reason I will most definitely cover my options.

The plummet confirms what I already thought about this area of the lake; the depth starts to flatten out at around 12 metres where the slope meets the natural bed of the lake. It’s around 11 feet deep here, and all the way back to my keepnet it gradually gets shallower from the way the reservoir was built. The first line of attack was to be at 13 metres slightly to my right.

My objective here was to set up a trap to catch some skimmers and maybe some early tench.

“Fish also like to feed on hard bottoms as food is easier to identify; the concrete slopes are perfect for this.”

Darren loose feeds close in on the slope.

26 | Match Fishing

The rig is very uncomplicated, and a DCC15 1g float is shotted with an olivette and three No10 dropper shot. The droppers are initially evenly spaced apart below the bulk, but I can move these together just above the hook length to form a double bulk if necessary. This is a great way of identifying true bites from liners, especially where skimmers and bream are concerned.

Hooks used are Garbolino Winter/Silvers in sizes 16 tied to Garbolino Super Soft in 0.14mm diameter.

Feed at the start is straightforward with one

tangerine sized ball in this deep water, with casters, blended corn (easy to do in the Garbolino bait chopper!), as well as some grains of corn. This was to try and identify what was feeding on the bottom. I know from experience that there are lots of small perch and roach in the venue, which make it very difficult to loose feed on this line in this depth. The groundbait, which is Mainline Sweet Marine, is mixed wet (but not sloppy) so that it stays on the bottom, and doesn’t attract small fish. Then I can top up with a golf ball of the same mix as required throughout the session.

One ball is enough to start the session.

Darren’s mix.

The groundbait for feeding long.

Work The Slope One of the most important areas on all reservoirs is the slope. For some reason fish love to feed on these slopes.

I guess it’s because as the level changes regularly, the fish become accustomed to feeding in these new fertile areas as the level rises. Fish also like to feed on hard bottoms as food is easier to identify; the concrete slopes are perfect for this.

Darren fed this many casters twice every drop in.

This was the stamp of crucian on the long line.

Plenty of loose feed to feed off the small perch.

Another 2lb crucian.

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| 27

Deep Reservoirs

“By covering my options on depths I quickly found the best line on the day and plundered it for a long time in the session.”

I have always found this a great area on reservoirs as you can often find the right depth to catch fish somewhere along the slope.

The important thing to think about on these kinds of slopes is where you feel the fish will be most comfortable to sit and feed. This will depend on how steep the slope, and how clear the water

is. Normally the steeper it is the closer the fish will come, and throw a good colour into the mix and they will come very close.

This is also a very good line on commercials, and other man-made venues as the fish can sit in relative comfort along the ledge at the depth that suits them according to the water clarity, and/or temperature.

This is a very important

point to think about every time you sit down at a swim.

To kick-start this short line I put in one very soft, almost loose ball of the same mix of groundbait with some casters in. I will then constantly feed casters by hand on a topkit-plus-two line, which is approximately seven feet deep. By loose feeding casters they will fall over

Another bar of gold comes to the net.

Stunning fish to catch.

28 | Match Fishing

a larger area, and I can fish my rig dead depth, overdepth, or even shallow depending on how far I flick my rig out.

This gives me several forms of presentation with one rig, without altering it!

For this area I set up two rigs. Both floats were DCC32 floats with fine hollow antennas and carbon stems. The first

Topping up kept the fish coming on the long line.

was in 0.4g with a strung out shotting pattern of No10 shot. This rig was intended to fish on or close to the bottom, but to create a slow fall in the last two feet of water. The crucians in this water can be extremely active, as well as finicky, but get the rig right and you can have a fantastic day with them. The second rig is a 0.2g version in the same float set at half depth with strung out No11 shot.

This is a great, versatile rig that can be strung out or fished with a bulk and a few droppers below. This is always set initially with a strung out pattern to try and help me identify exactly at which depth the fish are feeding best. Hooks were also the same, but this time a size 18 was tied to 0.12mm hooklength. One really important point is to dot the float to a pimple with crucians.

The first part of the session went well. I started on the longer line and caught a few nuisance perch and roach initially before some better fish moved in.

These were small tench up to a pound, small 3 to 4oz crucians and also some good skimmers. Liners became a problem here so I quickly switched to a double bulk rig and waited for the float to pop up. This was much better.

I fished this for an hour and a half in between a few quick looks on the short line, which resulted only in small perch, and I thought

at one point I may never get through them. Undeterred, I upped the constant feed on my short line to try and bring some better fish into the swim, and after a good initial session long, and four or five top-ups, which kept the fish coming well, I dropped back on my short line. The extra casters had finally worked and the bigger crucians had moved in en masse!

I caught the bigger crucians close to or on the bottom initially, with the ‘strung out’ 0.4g DCC32, but eventually they came up to half depth, and by switching between my 0.4g deeper, and 0.2g shallower rigs I had a fantastic run of big crucians for over two and a half hours.

By covering my options on depths I quickly found the best line on the day and plundered it for a long time in the session. Once I knew how good the ‘slope’ line had turned out, I could be a lot more positive on my longer line, and I started to feed a lot more corn. This worked as every time I need to let the crucians regroup I could catch skimmers and odd tench in the deeper water on what was now my ‘fall back’ line.

This then gave me the perfect scenario; catching on two lines means you are catching most of the time without any blank spells.

You come off one line when you feel it needs a rest, then your other line is ready for you. It takes a lot of

Lots of gold in this net for Darren.

discipline to feed multiple lines correctly, especially when you are catching well off one, but that is how you win matches!

I’ve finished today’s session with well over 35lb

of lovely ‘bars of gold’, plus some nice skimmers, tench and roach. A valuable practice session, reinforcing the need to keep working all the time wherever you are fishing.

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| 29

O £3 N .9 LY 9

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Nick Speed is at Lindholme Lakes for a fascinating insight into how to plan a match when F1s are the target species.

TOPICS DETAILED: - Formulating a match plan - Tactical thinking - Finding the fish - Signs to look out for - Bait and rig selection - Swim management

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SILVER FISH

SHALLOW 94

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MATCH FISHING

LIVE!

SCRATCHING AROUND

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

WINTER CARP

TACTICS

DON’T IGNORE SHALLOW WATER

CATCHING CARP

IN

SNAGGY SWIMS

CATCHING IN

TRICKY CONDITIONS

WINNING TACTICS ON COMMERCIALS

HYBRIDS ON THE FEEDER

PAST TACKLING FISH YOUR FEED HEAVILY COLOURED

WATER

ISSUES NINETEEN TO TWENTY FOUR

ISSUES TWENTY FIVE TO THIRTY

ISSUES THIRTY ONE TO THIRTY SIX

ISSUES 37 - 42

ISSUES 43-48

ISSUES 49-54

INCLUDES SIX VIDEOS AND THE DIGITAL VERSIONS OF THE ACCOMPANYING MAGAZINE

INCLUDES SIX VIDEOS AND THE DIGITAL VERSIONS OF THE ACCOMPANYING MAGAZINE

INCLUDES SIX VIDEOS AND THE DIGITAL VERSIONS OF THE ACCOMPANYING MAGAZINE

INCLUDES SIX VIDEOS AND THE DIGITAL VERSIONS OF THE ACCOMPANYING MAGAZINE

INCLUDES SIX VIDEOS AND THE DIGITAL VERSIONS OF THE ACCOMPANYING MAGAZINE

INCLUDES SIX VIDEOS AND THE DIGITAL VERSIONS OF THE ACCOMPANYING MAGAZINE

ISSUES 43-48

ISSUES 49-54

ISSUES 19-24

ISSUES 25-30

ISSUES 31-36

ISSUES 37-42

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EAST ANGLIA’S Secluded away in the Cambridgeshire countryside, this complex consists of seven lakes, on-site tackle shop and café, caravan site and holiday lodges. All lakes are exceptionally well stocked with carp, F1’s, tench, roach, rudd, perch, and the odd ornamental, providing good sport for all match and pleasure anglers. There is a lake to offer sport for anglers of all abilities and ages, with staff on hand to make sure you pick the right lake for you.

As well as excellent fishing, the on-site café offers a freshly cooked Full English breakfast every morning, made with local butcher’s sausages – a big hit with the local anglers and non-anglers.

The café also offers a selection of sandwiches, snacks, hot beverages and even bottled beer to keep you going through the day. For club matches, the staff in the café can organise an after-match meal, followed by a presentation with tea and coffee.

Unlike many tackle shops located on commercial fisheries, Tackle & Bates offers the visiting angler the complete package. Not only do we carry a large stock all major brands, including rods, reels, nets, seatboxes and accessories, plus all terminal accessories that you’ll need for your next session, we also have a huge selection of brands for the more select match anglers, including Hayabusa, Colmic, Tubertini and Cresta to name just a few.

For all café and accommodation enquiries please call Becky on 07884 180 768 The new self-catering holiday lodges at Rookery Waters offer a great, relaxing breakaway with, of course, great fishing included in the price.

Situated overlooking the oldest lake on the complex, you can fish right outside your front door with views of the Cambridgeshire countryside beyond. All lodges have two twin/double bedrooms, kitchen, living area and bathroom. Rookery Waters also has a caravan site, each pitch has its own private fishing platform in-front, electric hook-up, water and Wi-Fi.

As well as offering a huge selection of tackle, we also have in store a comprehensive selection of groundbait, hook baits and liquids from all major brands including Sonubaits, Sensas, Ringers, Van Den Eynde, Spotted Fin, Dynamite Baits, Mainline, Match, Hinders and more.

We also supply fresh baits including maggots, pinkies,

squatts and worms, while our casters are produced daily in store by our experienced bait team.

As well as over the counter sales, Tackle & Bates now has a very busy eBay store; to find us, please look up our selling page – tackleandbates1989 – for reliable and fast service.

If you are looking for an item and don’t use eBay, you can order over the phone and we accept all major

PLEASE CALL 07824 878492 TO SPEAK TO OUR EXPERIENCED STAFF FOR ALL ENQUIRIES OR TO PLACE AN ORDER. ROOKERY WATERS, ROOKERY FARMS, FEN ROAD, PIDLEY, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, PE28 3DF www.rookerywaters.co.uk

34 THE PRINCE OF THE RIVER There’s nothing Nick Speed likes more than catching barbel on the River Trent, and we pick his brains to discover the best way to catch them.

42 ELIMINATING THE LAGOON LINERS Groundbait is a key ingredient to catching bream, but as Amer Jawad shows, it’s not always just a case of adding water to the mix!

48 FEEDER ESSENTIALS The Preston Innovations Mag Store Rig Sticks and System Boxes make hook preparation easy –we take a look and you can win some!

www.feeder-fishing.co.uk www.feeder-fishing.co.uk

| 33

RIVER TRENT wark.

Cromwell, near Ne

E C N I R THE P E RIVER OF TH rbel an catching bbaeing th re o m s ke li d s g Nick Spee more and more matche is There’s nothin rent, and witnht fish we decided to pick h on the River eTse magnifice em. won with th cover the best way to catch th brains to dis

re The River Trent, home to mo nt. barbel than ever at the mome g and Hemp and casters for feedin hook. the for at me and maggots, pellets

34 | Match Fishing

NICK SPEE D Age: 49 Lives: Sheffi eld Sponsors: Shi Dynamite B mano, aits MF sa Class act anys: d a big thinker

think everyone who’s been fortunate enough to have been graced by one of these beautiful fish can relate to the fact that the barbel is the most majestic fish on the river ‘bucket list’. I remember in my early twenties making it my mission at least once in each season to make a trip with Gregg Owen and Kevin Vickers down to the River Severn at Bridgnorth for a barbel bonanza.

At that time this particular area was the Mecca for barbel fishing and in all honesty I don’t think anything can compare to the experience of catching a barbel, from the anticipation of a bite to the rod nearly being dragged in, to an unbelievable fight and then to be graced by what I believe is the holy grail of river fish.

As with all venues I always find it interesting how evolution has reshaped certain waters, and now barbel are in abundance a lot closer to home now on the mighty River Trent. Plenty of matches are now being won with them and they can be caught from a lot of pegs as they have spread along the river. In a way there’s a stigma attached with barbel that you need specific tackle to target these unique fish, but like with all disciplines and approaches, from a match angling point of view it’s all about getting the balance right.

In abundance or not, these are without doubt the most elusive fish to tame, as especially as they get older they’re so susceptible to light, and as a result trying to target them in match conditions makes them even more challenging. That to me is why I love this style of fishing.

Although I haven’t reached that crossover point yet of getting ‘bivvied up’ and night fishing for barbel, I still find it extremely challenging to try and target this species during normal daylight hours

I

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| 35

“There is no substitute for natural, more relative match baits such as hempseed and casters.”

First barbel of the day.

First cast of the day.

36 | Match Fishing

Hemp and casters in the feeder is Nick’s numberone choice.

Always carry extra leads to get the feeder weight spot on.

Nick’s feeder ready to go.

and of course that’s exactly what we need to do as match anglers.

To show my thought process behind how I target these beautiful fish on a match style approach, I met up with Dave Wesson on the tidal Trent. Now in my belief ‘location’ for this feature is the lesser part of the story, as without doubt it’s the actual approach that makes a huge difference to whether or not you manage to trigger these fish into feeding during the day, because more often than not they’re reluctant to feed until the light drops, unless there’s colour in the river. As with all fishing, staying in tune with nature is paramount, you need to feel part of it, and especially with river barbel keeping up to date with the weather and river levels is crucial if you’re going to reap the rewards.

The day we chose was a perfect day as it was overcast with a recent downpour of rain, which has helped maintain a tinge of colour in the water.

Now, I’m no expert at barbel fishing, but one thing I’m quick at figuring out is specific approaches that make a big difference when targeting certain species. Without doubt one thing I’ve found is that although up and down the Trent the barbel are getting

targeted with a specimen bait approach such as boilies and pellets, there is no substitute for natural, more relative match baits such as hempseed and casters.

Regardless of the size of these fish, this particular bait combination is irresistible to these fish. It’s my belief that this combination really does help trigger these wary fish into not only investigating the bait, but actually feeding when maybe other baits might not have the same appeal and effect.

From a match angler’s perspective, it’s always the bait choice that’s at the forefront of your decision making and is the difference between an approach working or not, and during my ventures when barbel fishing it’s been apparent to see that natural ‘match baits’ really do make a huge difference when other baits produce less of a response.

Of course, these fish are packed with power so the setup for barbel is very specific, from the rod choice right down to the choice of hook. Being specific with the setup enables you to also be selective for certain species such as barbel, which in turn deters other nuisance fish from upsetting your trap.

My rod choice is the 13ft

Another stunner.

A bunch of maggots will tempt wary fish.

Tackle needs to be strong and reliable.

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| 37

It took a while but fish on!

Another Trent barbel for Speedy.

Aero X7 Distance Power Feeder 120g, which is the perfect tool for the job as it’s got loads of power for the casting of heavy feeders to cope with the river pace, to playing and staying in control of these powerful fish throughout the hard and often tiring fight. Again, the reel is equally important as you need a real powerhouse model that can cope with the rigours of retrieving feeders through powerful water, especially with a big powerful barbel attached at the other end. For this reason there is only one choice in my opinion, the Shimano Ultegra 5500XTC. Main line choice is 0.28mm, which is extremely abrasive and perfect for dealing with the terrain you’re faced with in this style of fishing, as you need a line that will not let you down, especially when the fish are running for freedom over rocks and snags.

Down to the feeder choice and in my experience there is no substitute to a standard

38 | Match Fishing

Once they rocked up it was all action.

Nick’s barbel rig. large maggot feeder, which enables the particles to leak out gradually. Hooklength-wise, this is without doubt the most important area as in my belief hi-tech lines have no place in this setup. You need an ultraabrasion resistant material that can cope with all the elements I’ve mentioned, so for this reason I use Aero Fluorocarbon in 0.25mm, as through trial and error this been by far has been the most reliable setup.

Hook choice is quite simple and I believe there is only one

Waiting patiently for a bite.

“Equally important is managing the weight of the feeder and by this I mean the lighter the feeder you can get away with the better. “ Simply lovely.

See how the hooklength stays away from the feeder.

pattern worth considering, the Guru MWG barbed hook in sizes 10 or 12, as these without doubt are the most reliable hooks I’ve ever used for this specific style of fishing. They’re both ultra-sharp and very strong.

Especially with river barbel fishing, the whole setup needs to be as simple as possible, and for this reason I use the simple running boom setup. This is simply a braid stop top and bottom, with a twisted boom

for the hooklength to connect to. Over time I’ve tried several other setups but this by far is the most efficient as by altering the position of the braid stops I can either create a bolt rig or a running boom, depending on how the fish are feeding.

Many anglers think you need to set a bed of bait down before they arrive over your feed when targeting barbel, but actually what I’ve learnt, especially during the day, is it’s all about progression. Whereas

a specimen angler might make very few casts and leave the feeder in for long periods of time, I’ve found that the constant interruption of the feeder hitting the surface not only creates a steady stream of bait, but more importantly I believe the barbel become inquisitive of the noise of the feeder and the constant trickle of bait entering the feed zone.

This really does speed up the process of fish investigating what’s going on, and in turn gets a response far quicker than more patient casts.

Another area that’s equally important is managing the weight of the feeder and by this I mean the lighter the feeder you can get away with the better. When it comes to the reward of actually hooking and playing a barbel, the less weight you have attached to the feeder allows you to not only feel how the fish is fighting, but it places far less stress on t your setup, which in turn minimises lost or snagged-up fish.

To achieve this, fishing with a bow is paramount as this massively reduces the amount of weight needed to get the feeder to hold bottom. But more importantly, using the bow technique eradicates the chance of being broken on the initial and often vicious bite, as feeding the line out causes the fish to slacken the tip off on the bite as opposed to pulling the rod in, which often happens when fishing tight to the feeder.

The biggest subject in my belief is hook bait choice, as there are certain baits that really do make a huge difference when targeting barbel, especially those bigger barbel that have seen it all before.

Although we all associate barbel with moving over your feed and hoovering all your bait up, this in my belief is definitely not true. Through trial and error I’ve realised these clever/ wary fish spend a long time inspecting your bait before they decide to eat it or leave it alone.

The biggest learning curve

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| 39

Even the sun came out in the afternoon.

Biggest fish of the session. for me came when I was halfway through a session. I was blanking using a choice of meat and pellets as my hook baits when I knew there were barbel present in the swim but couldn’t get a bite.

At this point I immediately swapped to bunches of maggots, which completely turned my peg around from not getting a bite to landing five double figure barbel in as many casts, not forgetting I hadn’t fed a single maggot! So for this reason my first choice before I try any other bait will always be bunches of maggots as I’m convinced, especially during daylight hours, barbel are so cautious of bigger baits.

However, especially with barbel, experimentation is paramount as what works one day may not work the next, so always be armed with at least two or three different hook baits to try.

As I said earlier though, this style of fishing is all about progressive feeding and at

40 | Match Fishing

the start of this session it almost seemed this particular peg was devoid of fish, but gradually through time and motion, signs of fish began to appear.

Moving into the third hour of the session I received my first barbel of the day, a beautiful 5lb fish. What was apparent on this particular day was the length of the hooklength made a massive difference as a much longer hooklength was far better. It was almost as if the fish were reluctant to move too close to the feeder.

It’s situations like this that make you think, how long the barbel have actually been there sat over your feed, but remain very cautious on what they intercept.

For this reason, even on a session where you might be expecting a few bites off barbel, it’s important that you experiment as that sudden change in hooklength or hook bait, or even casting further down your swim to see if fish have backed off, can often be the difference between catching and not. As it turned out this particular session turned out to

be a belter, as I managed to land eight barbel from eight bites, which in turn made a magical day on the bank. So if you fancy fishing an open match on the Trent, or have a club match or other event organised on the river, hopefully you’ve now got the information you need if you’re faced with a swim where barbel are the target.

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G N I T A ELIMINN O O G A L S R E N I L

os Words and phot

: Steve Martin

t to catching a’s n ie d re g in y ke Groundbait is, abut as Amer Jawad shows,ixit net of bream of adding water to the m not just a case go! and away you

the Early success before d. ive arr real heat

42 | Match Fishing

AMER JAWAD Age: 52 Lives: Cambridge Sponsor: Rive MF says: Groundbait magic ian

he South Lagoon on the Wyboston Lakes complex in Bedfordshire is an old 20-acre gravel pit located on the banks of the River Great Ouse. It’s a popular match venue, but if you are serious about trying to win then it’s all about attracting the shoals of big bream to your peg, and then keeping them there.

Rive’s Amer Jawad regularly fishes the venue, and to find out his big-bream approach, we met up with him on one of the hottest days of the year, so far. Not the best conditions, but an added challenge.

“I’ll be the first to admit that I normally fish the lake later in the year,” Amer pointed out, as he sent a worm and dead red maggots cocktail out into the distance.

“However, I did hear that

T

to feed.

“I’ve set my long rod up to fish at 55 metres. That’s not a random distance, as I spent a good while casting around the area with a bomb, and although I didn’t find any clear gravel I did find a firm bottom, only a little silt, which I’m happy to fish over.

“It’s the same with the shorter chuck, which is at 38 metres. The lake bed is hard and clear there, so there are no issues with a feeder plugging, something that can happen in shallow-water lakes when it hits the deck.”

Looking at Amer’s two feeder setups they were very similar. The first thing to note is that he was fishing 0.10mm (13lb) braid main lines, which he pointed out gave better bite indication when fishing longer distances. The long-chuck

"I’ve gone for a dark mix, that I feel blends in with the lake bed, and won’t spook the fish." there had been some good summer weights coming out, and I wanted to try a different groundbait recipe that I’d been toying with recently.

“What I didn’t expect was the conditions. It’s been really hot during the last few days and it’s bright, no cloud cover, plus there’s little or no breeze. Definitely not the best weather when it comes to catching bream, as the lake is fairly shallow, maybe five feet at best out in the middle.”

The weather app said 27ºC and looking out over the lake there were big carp cruising around, enjoying the summer sun.

“I’m looking to catch at two distances today. An initial longer line to start on, as I feel that any early fish are going to be out in the middle, and a shorter chuck that I want to nurture during the session, and hopefully encourage a shoal

setup was a 12ft rod and to avoid crack-offs on the cast he had 10lb shockleader. The business end was simple: a running feeder link above a small buffer stop, which sat above a 4in twizzled loop.

Hook link was 24 inches of 0.16mm Rive Hardline and a size 14 Guru Match Special hook. The differences for the 11ft setup for the shorter line were an 8lb shockleader and the hook link was 0.14mm mono.

Amer also had a Method feeder rod set up for the short line, which he explained gave him the option of trying less traditional hook baits if the natural choices didn’t seem to be working. Having touched on the lack of any real depth in the lake, he also pointed out that the water was clear for the time of year, and that dictated the groundbait that he had chosen for the session.

Bait-up feeders are an important essential to get your initial feed out when targeting fish at distance.

A window feeder adds more freebies and less groundbait per cast than a cage feeder.

Add the payload to the rocket feeder, sandwiched between the groundbait.

What bream can refuse an agitated worm in a carpet of inert feed?

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| 43

“With the water being so shallow I’ve gone for a dark mix, that I feel blends in with the lake bed, and won’t spook the fish like some of the lighter mixes that are popular on deeper, gravelbottomed venues.

“My recipe today is 75 per cent Sonubaits’ Match Method Mix Dark and 25 per cent Pro Thatchers Green. It’s full of fishmeal and crushed pellets, which bream love, and it binds well when mixed slightly on the dry side, which is essential when feeding casters and dead reds through a feeder.

“I’ve mixed it so that it holds together with a light squeeze, but breaks up with a light rub between the hands. In theory it will break down as soon as the feeder lands, so the freebies explode out to create a carpet on the deck. The feed has loads of active particles that will create a cloud around the feed, as added attraction.

“I’ve already fed 10 bait-up feeders laced with casters, dead

reds and a few micros on the 55m line and another 15 over the shorter line. It’s been a good start, as I’ve had two bream on the long line in two casts.”

While he waited for his tip to go again, Amer pointed to the trees on the far bank.

“When fishing two lines on the feeder I try and avoid drawing my long distance feeder through the area of my short line, as I want to avoid spooking any fish that might have moved in on the feed.

It’s even more important when fishing shallower, clear lakes.

“When I was chucking a bomb around to find the clear areas on the lake bed I also made a note of a far-bank marker, so that I didn’t cast on the same line. There’s a gap in the top of the trees to the left, and that’s my long-chuck marker.

“Then if you look, there’s a forked, dead tree to the right, and that’s my short line sighter. The distance between the two markers ensures that I keep well clear of the short line when I retrieve my

The best specimens of the session came after switching to the modified groundbait.

44 | Match Fishing

feeder.”

Without warning, Amer’s tip jagged around, and the third fish of the day was on.

“The great thing with braid is, as well as better bite indication when fishing at distance, you can feel every slow, lumbering movement of the fish as it fights, and with no stretch in the line you have to play big fish with a degree of care – allowing the rod to act as a buffer whenever the fish lunges.”

Three bream in as many casts had been an exceptional start to the session. However, that would be the final action on the 55m line, as Amer failed to get another indication in the next hour, even after switching to a window feeder to add more particles and less groundbait.

“All three bites came out of the blue, as there were no liners or any indications of a lot of fish there. I’ve put plenty of food out there as I’ve been casting regularly, so I’m going to rest the line and see if the fish have

moved closer in.”

Almost immediately after his first bait landed on the short line, Amer’s tip started to dance.

It turned out to be smaller fish, as he caught two skimmers in consecutive casts, but then it went quiet for the next 30 minutes. A switch back to the long-chuck line didn’t improve the action, so confident that the short line was the right call Amer switched again.

“There was a lot more going on when I caught those skimmers, and I might not have given it long enough for the bites to develop. I think, given the conditions, the fish are a little wary, so I’m going to cast less often, say every 10 minutes rather than five.”

A few casts later, Amer started to get liners, which indicated that the fish were not on the bottom, and it wasn’t until a light breeze hit the water that he had a savage pull on the tip and the first proper bream. Two more fish followed, not immediately, but as soon as

"All three bites came out of the blue, as there were no liners or any indications of a lot of fish there."

An atomiser ensures that you don’t overwet your feed.

The paste-like modified feed (left) is not your usual recipe for bream, but as it releases fewer small particles it can reduce line bites.

the breeze vanished so did the bites. However, the line bites didn’t.

“It was interesting to note that I started to catch fish when the breeze came, but even now it’s flat calm, I’m getting liners. I just wonder if my groundbait is too dry, and what’s happening is there are a lot of particles rising up in the water and that’s what’s keeping the fish from moving down on my feed.

“Bream don’t spend all the time feeding on the bottom. Mostly they swim around at about twothirds depth and drop down when they sense food. I think they are just swimming around taking the floating particles, and that’s why I’m getting so many big line bites.

“I think that as I’m using braid it has a more neutral buoyancy than mono, and that’s another reason why I’m seeing a lot of liners. I’m going to have a chuck with the Method to see if it does actually reduce the effect.”

With four dead reds in the moulded feed, the Method

setup landed on the spot and Amer then waited to see if his conclusion was right. It certainly eliminated the liners, but after two casts, it didn’t improve his catch rate.

“I’m confident that the fish are there, but I need to force them down. I have a little trick that I’ve used when fishing for bream in Europe, and that’s to overwet my feed, so it’s almost a soft paste-like consistency.

“It needs to be wet enough that it starts to break up as the feeder hits the water, but not too sloppy that it explodes out on impact.

What I’m trying to achieve is a column of feed that sinks down to the hook bait, and so it pulls the fish down.

“What I think is currently happening is the feed is floating up and away from the hook bait. I hope that makes sense!”

To demonstrate his theory, Amer added extra water to some of his feed with an atomiser to ensure he didn’t add too much, and once it was sorted, he added

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| 45

A firm press will lock the dry feed in the gripmesh feeder.

Allow the softer groundbait to ooze out of the mesh, so that some gets released as the feeder hits the water.

some casters and dead reds.

Once the feeder was loaded, the groundbait oozed slightly out of the mesh.

“You can see that as soon as the feeder hits the water it will create a heavy, sinking, cloudy column, and once on the bottom the wet feed will break down and form a heavy cloud around the hook bait.”

far uck g ch arker n o L km ban

e g lin Lon etres m 5 –5

far uck rt ch arker o h S km ban

e rt lin Sho etres m – 38

aids ding Stan ting to a cas tance dis

Mission accomplished, and in the most extreme of summer conditions.

46 | Match Fishing

Pick two far-bank markers to ensure that you separate your two distance lines.

With the modified groundbait ready to go, Amer sent the first load out. After a couple of casts, the frequency of the line bites started to tail off, and any liners that he did get were strong pulls on the line, which indicated that the fish were moving closer to the feed and not swimming around, constantly knocking against the braid.

After a few slow pulls, the tip shot round and a decent bream was hooked. A pattern then emerged in which Amer would get two or three fish in succession and then only line bites.

“I think that these bream are moving in and then after I catch a few they back off, but not too far, as indicated by the number of liners. I believe a combination of the hot, bright conditions and the reluctance to really feed has meant that I’m just picking off the odd fish, rather than a stream of constant bites.”

By the end of the session Amer had 12 bream, plus a number of good skimmers for a total weight that he estimated to be around 50lb, so a good haul considering the conditions.

“I caught those three early bream before the sun was too high in the sky, but once it got hot the bream were really reluctant to feed. I did catch better when there were ripples on the water, but even in the flat calm I kept getting liners. The action definitely got better when I changed my groundbait.

“One more tip that I found worked well today was the fact that I only added casters and dead reds to my feed after the initial bait-up feeder of groundbait, which had a few micros in.

Worms are a great addition to any feed, but when it looks like the fishing is going to be hard, I leave them out.

“The groundbait, casters and dead reds are inert on the bottom, so when a fish see the movement of your hook bait, and today it was the small dendrabaenas, they will zone in on the movement.

“If you add chopped worms, even the smallest piece still wriggles and elongates, which takes the focus away from your hook, so I find it best to leave worms out unless I’m on a shedful!”

HOOKED FOR LIFE Preston Innovations Mag Store Rig Sticks and System Boxes make hook preparation easy. hen you’re fishing the Method or pellet feeder you need a nice short hooklength tied to a strong, sharp hook and you need each hooklength to be the same length, most usually four inches long.

But who wants to spend hours in the garage, shed, spare room or kitchen tying them (and heaven help you if you drop a hook!)?

Preston Innovations Ready Rigs are constructed from the highest quality materials and

W

48 | Match Fishing

tied to precise specifications to create rigs suitable for all anglers and taking away the need to tie your own. Let’s face it, they are probably tied better than most of us can manage to do too!

Each pack contains eight hand tied rigs, which are stored on the Rig Stick, with a sticker identifying the hook pattern and diameter/breaking strain of line.

These are already very popular in the KKM-B pattern tied to four inches of Reflo Power line, and are now available in the stronger

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KKH-B version. Preston claims this super-strong pattern is the ultimate hair-rigging hook for big fish and features a PTFE coating for durability and anti-glare properties. It has the same out-turned eye and beaked point but in a thicker and forged wire for added strength.

The rigs come in two versions, with either a hair-rigged bait band or wire bayonet – the banded rigs can be used for pellets and wafters while the bayonet rigs are ideal for boilie and Band’Um hook baits.

Available in Size/Diameter/BS: 16/0.19mm/7lb 6oz; 14/0.21mm/8lb 15oz; 12/0.21mm/8lb 15oz and 10/0.24mm/11lb.

Also available are the same Rig Sticks but with MCM-B hooks. These are perfect for commercial bagging and feature a circle design to help eliminate fish loss, have a PTFE coating and are available with either a band or a bayonet hair rig, in Size/Diameter/BS: 16/0.17mm/6lb 12oz; 14/0.19mm/7lb 6oz and 12/0.19mm/7lb 6oz.

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POLE FISHING

52 LEAVE THE BARRELS IN THE BAG Leanne Knott reckons that by always fishing to the maximum length of your pole it is costing you a lot of fish.

58 MEAT TREAT Meat is one of those baits that all fish love to eat and Mark Cree loves to use it. Here’s how he gets the most out of the bait.

64 KEEP YOUR COOL FOR F1 PASTE SUCCESS Will Raison explains that you need a cool head if you want to catch a big bag of F1s on paste.

70 THE KEEPNET SWIM Jon Arthur analyses a close-in feature in everyone’s peg that should never be overlooked – your keepnet!

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 51

POLE FISHING

LEANN E KNOT T Age Lives: N: 33 e w a rk Sponso rs Future F: Matrix/ ishing M One of F says: the female UK’s best anglers

s l e r r a b e Leave th in the bag er Photos: Mark Park

Leanne Knott sees a lot of e ac tch ma d an er mb me ff always Future Fishing sta kle shop, but reckons that by tac the m fro les po m 16 g yin anglers bu ng you a lot of fish… fishing to this length it is costi G LAKES PORTLAND FISHIN NG23 5PN Sibthorpe, Newark

52 | Match Fishing

think it is fair to say that in these days of incredible poles and carbon quality, anglers are literally spoilt for choice regarding the amount of great 16m poles on the market.

This has also created a natural problem in that as all poles are longer, stronger, lighter and stiffer, everyone has become almost obsessed with fishing at their maximum distance.

And why? Because they can!

I think that taking this rather blinkered view is doing you a disservice in the long run as quite often you end up fishing well past the bulk of the fish. Just like sea anglers, who are always looking to pendulum cast three miles or so, most of the fish are in the surf, beneath their feet!

It’s a mentality thing I think.

Because you have paid a lot of money for a 16m pole you tend to feel that you have to use it at that length every time. Yes, it is true that fish will push out away from the bank, especially bream, but carp and F1s are very different and they don’t mind

I

Leanne’s float selection.

Leanne tops up after every two fish using a pole pot.

feeding much closer, especially in the margins. Plus, it is thinking like this that can lead to lost matches as you aren’t making the most of the water in front of you.

This is the reason that I’m a great advocate of leaving the barrels in the bag, as they say, looking to fish four sections into the margins and six sections into open water.

ADVANTAGES OF FISHING SHORT The first and most obvious advantage of fishing short is that it is so much quicker and easier to ship the pole in and out. Plus, the more time you are in the water the more fish you have a chance of catching.

If you have to ship in 16 metres every time you are losing valuable seconds every cast and although this may only be a few seconds, over the period of a match it can add up to quite a chunk. After all, when it comes to match fishing, time is money!

Maybe not on a water like this – Portland Fishing Lakes at Newark – but on a more F1

Leave the barrels in the bag!

www.feeder-fishing.co.uk

| 53

POLE FISHING ??????????

Double hair-rigged corn was best for the carp.

dominated water, where it’s a bit more of a ‘fish race’, all those seconds and minutes lost shipping in and out equal fish.

The other thing about fishing short is that it is much more comfortable to do. A third advantage is it is easier to fish with softer hook baits as when you strike, if they do come off you are not wasting time as much time once again shipping in to rebait.

And the final thing, which I think is possibly the biggest positive, is that you are able to fish your own water. If you are fishing long, to say the same island margins, the fish will get spooky as they swim around as every few yards they encounter yet another rig! So, by having your own water it is much easier

54 | Match Fishing

Leanne’s margin loose feed.

A simple bait tray.

Leanne and a Portland carp.

Never ignore the margins.

A hard fighting carp.

to formulate and follow a plan as you can read the swim better, as it is only really influenced by what you are doing and have done.

In the past, when a few anglers are fishing to the same island for example, I have seen them trying to outfeed each other, even if the fish don’t want a lot of bait.

It’s a ‘they’ve fed, so I should’ mentality, which is very easy to fall into if you’re not careful.

THE DOWNSIDES Like anything in life, there are always two sides to the story.

The main disadvantage of fishing closer in is that due to the disturbance, the fish can and will naturally push away from the bank. That said, you have another 10 metres to add if needs be! But to be serious, if the fish push out beyond an extra section, I will re-feed that line and then leave it until the fish come back in and resettle. Otherwise, again you risk fishing longer than you want to as well as allowing the fish to dictate terms to you.

The second point is easily stopped by using a bit of

common sense. If you are going to fish one line short and one long, split them so they are at the 10 o’clock and two o’clock positions. Don’t have them at six and 12 as you’ll be bringing your long line fish through your short line, which will spook them.

THREE LINES ON THE LAKE For today’s session, I have three lines. Two out the front at 10 and two and one to the left, into the margins. All revolve around two simple baits – pellets and corn – although they are fished in a way that gives me a load of options.

On the side tray I have 4mm and 6mm pellets and a mixture of 3mms and corn. This allows me to feed smaller baits while having a larger bait on the hook.

The mind-set behind this is that it allows me to gauge what the fish want on the day. Some days corn in particular can be great and other days it’s not so good.

By mixing things up I can see what is best and also what is bringing the quickest bites or even the larger stamp. Generally, when the bigger fish are feeding,

you need to bait and wait more often to allow them to resettle.

From my simple bait tray I have a lot of options. On the two o’clock line I have loose fed more 4mms and then put a 6mm on the hook. This has seen me catch mostly large F1s on this line.

Conversely, the 10 o’clock line has been fed with 6mm pellets and corn. This has seen more carp caught from this line.

It may stand to reason that I get bigger fish from the line with the bigger hook baits, but this is not always the case as very often the carp come to the smaller bait items, mostly because the presentation is better and more subtle. The other beauty is that if one of the lines isn’t catching that well, I can swap the other line over so I fish that the same as the line that is.

LINE ONE – TWO O’CLOCK This has been my F1 line today. Starting from the elastic downwards, I’m fishing a 12-14 hybrid. This is a cross between a hollow and solid and means that it is very soft at the start but powers up very quickly. It means

that I don’t bump many fish but more importantly, they don’t break the surface, which can spook fish in shallow water.

If I was to use a lighter elastic, I wouldn’t have full control over the larger fish, whereas a heavier elastic will see me bump or pull out of a lot of small fish.

The main line is Matrix 6.5lb to a 6in hook link of 5lb 3oz and a size 16 hook. On this line I have attached a bait band to the hook to make baiting up very quick and easy when using a 6mm hard pellet.

My float is a PI 4x14 Carp Pellet. Designed to fish with pellets, I like the slim profile as I think it gives a good presentation with positive bite registration.

The shotting pattern is a bulk of No8 shot, just above the hook link and a single shot at the base of the float to add stability and trim the bristle. Naturally, being a pellet rig, it is set to fish at dead depth.

LINE TWO – 10 O’CLOCK My second open water line is aimed at more carp, ideally. The setup is pretty much identical apart from the float, which I have swapped over to a 4x14 Diamond. This I have set up with a slightly strung bulk starting from the hook link upwards, with around an inch in between each shot. I like a Diamond float with this rig as I’m fishing corn, which is bigger and heavier than a 6mm pellet, so it gives me more stability. It also helps to get the hook bait down quickly in the water.

www.feeder-fishing.co.uk

| 55

POLE FISHING A map of Leanne’s three swims.

Plenty of feed for the margins.

The only other change is that I have removed the bait band and swapped it for a hair-rigged quickstop. This enables me to easily bait up with either a single or double kernel of corn. I find that a double hair-rigged corn helps me to pick out a larger stamp of fish too.

LINE THREE – MARGINS The final line of the session is to my left into the margins. As the other two aren’t broke, why fix this rig! So, again everything is pretty similar, apart from a change of float.

As the margins are much shallower, I have opted for a 4x14 Edge. These are designed to fish in the margins as they are squat and heavy for their size.

Ideally, I want a float twice as heavy as I would use in the same depth of open water. Having a heavier float brings a lot more stability and lessens the amount of foul hooking and line bites I get, which is the kiss of death when fishing in the margins.

FISHING AND FEEDING All three lines are treated very similar at the start, being that they all are kicked off with a quarter pole cup of loose feed.

56 | Match Fishing

The one thing that does change is the type of feed. On the two o’clock line, I feed 4mm and 6m pellets in a ratio of 90:10. This sees the 6mm pellets that I’m putting on the hook stand out more.

I take the same approach with the 10 o’clock line. This is feed with 6mm pellets and corn again in a 90:10 ratio. I really want the fish homing in on the larger hook bait so I get quicker bites.

The margins are slightly different though, due to the nature and style of fishing.

Here I loose feed a mixture of 3mm moistened pellets and corn. The ratio this time being a full bag of pellets to two whole tins of sweetcorn. The reason for having more ‘hook bait’ samples mixed in with the pellets is that in the margins the fish are only coming in to feed and not sit.

This means that you need a lot more bigger bait items to help hold these larger fish for longer.

In other words, they need a reason to be and stay there.

As the session progresses, I

Leanne’s loose feed – a 90:10 ratio of 6mms and corn.

top up each line with a pole pot filled with the same ratio and style of loose feed as I kick off with. This is fed after every two fish caught, so help hold them and stop them coming up in the water also.

When a line dies back, I re-feed it with the pole cup before leaving it.

Then, by the time I have fished the other two lines, the fish should have come back on this line and be ready to feed once again. After this it is simply a case of working all three swims in rotation, fishing, feeding and leaving as the bites dictate.

By the end of my short session, I have well in excess of 100lb. Could I have caught this much fishing longer? Yes… maybe… no? Who knows, but the speed and ease of fishing

She re-feeds with the pole cup every time she leaves one line for another.

closer has seen me catch a great deal more than those around me and in a match that’s all that really counts!

Just part of Leanne’s catch.

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POLE FISHING

A

Meat treat Photos: Mark Parker

MARK CRE E Age: 53 Lives: New Pole: Dai ark Sponsor: D wa Air ynamite Baits MF sa Likes a bit ys: of red…

Meat is one of those baits that all fish love.

Mark Cree explains why he loves using it…

FLOAT FISH FARM Peterborough www.floatfishfarm.co.uk

58 | Match Fishing

lthough fewer and fewer venues allow it these days, meat is still one of my favourite baits. It is utterly devastating as well as allowing you to catch pretty much everything that swims.

As a bait it is clean, easy to obtain and use and just one tin offers the angler an index of possibilities. You can cube it, slice it, punch it, shred it, dye it, flavour it, grate it and coat it, to mention just a handful of ideas.

It is one of those products that I have always been a fan of. Long ago, when it was more ‘accepted’, one of my favourite methods was using grated meat mixed 50:50 with micro pellets.

This was pole potted to the mud line, with a chunk of punched meat on the hook. The fish I caught and number of matches it helped me win were massive!

As I’m fishing today at Peterborough’s Float Fish Farm this is not an option, owing to the size of the

lakes and the distance to the islands. Not that this causes a problem, as meat is just as good in open water and the margins. The oil it pumps out and the protein it is packed with draws fish from long distances and once they get on it, they don’t come off it!

Normally, I will soak my meat in boiling water to remove as much of the fat as possible, but this will depend upon where I’m fishing and how I’m looking to fish too. The removal of the fat will make the meat

sink quicker, but if I’m looking to fish shallow or on the drop I’ll leave more of it on. This is just one of the advantages this product brings to the table.

The Advantages Of Meat •Not all meats are created equal!

Meant for human, not fish, consumption, this means there is a vast amount of different types of tinned meats on the market.

A lot of anglers will look no further than the classic Plumrose and this is fine. It has caught a

huge amount of fish in its time so what’s not to like? For me, I personally like Bacon Grill. This is very similar to Plumrose in consistency only it has more spices added, which I find appealing. It is one of those products that I have used effectively for many years and so I know how it works in various scenarios.

After all, I always say that there are no rules in fishing and that the greatest bait you can bring with you on to the bank is confidence. It something works for you,

A small Float Fish Farm mirror carp falls to Mark’s meat approach.

“There are no rules in fishing and the greatest bait you can bring with you on to the bank is confidence.”

Tom Hardy Diamond float…

… and Margin float.

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 59

POLE FISHING

They never give in!

you seem to fish it better I find as you have 100 per cent faith in it.

• Be a softie It is well known that carp (and other species too) are quite black and white in their feeding habits. They seem to love things that are both hard and crunchy (pellets/nuts/boilies) or very soft food items (meat, corn and expander pellets).

This is where luncheon meat scores massively as the carp can suck it in easily.

This makes it perfect for targeting other species

A few cubes to top up the swim.

60 | Match Fishing

too – like barbel, skimmers, bream and tench.

• Protein packed The reason meat works so well from the spring onwards is that it is oozing with oils. In warmer water, this oil floods out of the bait, helping to pull fish from a much wider area than other loose feeds.

• Versatility is a virtue Meat is undoubtedly one of the most versatile baits you can use. I like to keep things simple though. The best way to fish meat is in cubes.

Today I’m using 8mm cubes

as I am fishing my main line into open water for big carp and barbel. As well as the cubes of Bacon Grill, I have also add an equal amount of Robin Red meat. This gives me a colour change and flavour difference in the swim so that I have options. I also find that the spices from the Bacon Grill perfectly match the spiciness of the Robin Red. Normally I’m a big fan of sweet baits, but when it comes to meat I tend to go the other way. I find that spice and meat are better bedfellows in the long run.

Years ago I used to use a lot

Cupping in a little margin mush.

of things like garam masala, paprika and cayenne pepper, as it is well known that carp love hot and zingy foods. Just look how well things like chilli hemp work. Also, the big carp lads have been adding various Indian spices to their boilie mixes for years, so what’s the difference between a specimen carp and one in a commercial pool?

I look at it like laying a buffet of food. If everyone is fishing with something similar and you offer the fish that something a little different, you have an immediate edge over the

Dump potting can often stop the carp coming up in the water.

Mark’s favourite meat is Bacon Grill.

He uses a MAP Meat Cutter to cube his meat.

A scrappy carp on its way to the net.

A mixture of Bacon Grill and Robin Red meat. rest of the field. This is why I have cubes as well as a mixture of cubes and mushed meat on the side tray. The cubes are for my main open water swim, whereas the meat mix is for fishing down the margins.

This mixture contains equal measures of cubed meat, grated meat and groundbait to form a cloud.

Due to this cloudy effect, I will only use this loose feed in swims up to two feet deep. Using it in deeper water will see the fish coming up off the bottom, which will cause you loads of problems in the long run.

• Colours The other thing that works great with meat is that it not only takes flavours but also colours very well.

I really like to colour my meat pink. A lot of anglers consider meat to be pink, but actually it is closer to white as it washes out quite quickly in the water.

Although, being white or off white can have its own

advantages as in coloured water, the pale colour again allows it to stand out on the lake bed. The point of any fishing tactic is to get quicker and more bites and if mixing up colours and flavours can help do this then guess what I’ll be doing with my meat!

Mark likes to side hook his cubes when fishing closer in Meat catches lots of barbel too.

Fishing With Meat As I say, I have two swims on the go today – one in open water at around six metres, and a margin swim to my left.

Like any bait, as long as you don’t strike like Zorro, you can fish soft baits like meat at 16 metres plus with ease. But, if you can fish closer I find it easier and quicker to get fish in and in a match, pounds in the net equals pounds in the pocket!

Generally, if I am fishing soft baits long, I tend to hair rig them, whereas I like to side hook when looking to fish closer in.

My open water swim is just at the bottom of the

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 61

POLE FISHING near shelf. This is a natural patrol route for the fish and a place where a lot of natural food tends to gather.

The margin swim is into two feet, next to a reed bed, which is again a natural holding point for fish.

Turning the attention to the tackle, I have a Tom Hardy Solid Eco elastic.

This is actually a hybrid style elastic, so it’s a halfway house between a solid and a hollow. Today’s choice is rated 14 to 16, although it is actually much softer than this and I find it

Mark primes the margins with his meat mush.

to be an excellent all-round elastic. My main line is 0.20mm to a 0.14mm hook link. There are some very big carp in here so there is no need to go too light.

The float is again a Tom Hardy, this one being a 0.6g Diamond, which I have shotted with a strung bulk of No9 shot to give the meat cubes a nice gentle fall through the water column.

The hook however, is very big comparatively. It is a size 10 Kaizen. That said, once matched with an 8mm cube of meat, the hook all but disappears. They are also razor sharp!

One thing I do like to add is a heavy back shot. This is a group of four No9s, which then allows me to hold the rig to the back shot and not the float. In turn this allows for better presentation and a resistance free bite,

which makes the takes more positive. Also, Float Fish Farm is quite flat and so it is very open to the elements, especially the wind, so the back shot help me to combat this. As I’m fishing at the bottom of the slope I have plumbed up so the rig is just over one inch overdepth. This then allows for any anomalies in the lake bed. Apart from that, the set-up is very simple.

Turning to the margin rig, this is almost the same setup as the main rig, the only differences being that I use a 0.16mm hook link and a Tom Hardy Margin float.

This is fished dead depth so that it is very positive and registers every bite very quickly.

Regarding the feeding, this is a very personal thing and is mostly dictated by how the fish want it on the day. Some days you need to Kinder pot a few cubes over the top; other days, like today, it helps to pole cup a load in and fish it out.

rp .

Mark and a ghost ca

“The feeding is a very personal thing and is mostly dictated by how the fish want it on the day.”

62 | Match Fishing

Fishing has no rules, sadly!

If I find that the fish want to come up in the water, which they are often prone to do with meat as it sinks quite slowly, mixing it with a particle will help to force them back down again.

The classic combination is to add hemp. Although radically different in size, taste, crunch and colour, it is a combo that just seems to work brilliantly. Another combo that I use a lot is sweetcorn. I don’t like to use too much pellet as this will break down over time and can cause gill feeding and other problems.

Sweetcorn tends to be better for bigger fish, that are grazing, so I’m looking to keep a ‘clean’ peg or if I want to make a bit of noise when cupping in to draw fish from a distance. Hemp works well in warmer water as the oils release quicker, plus, if the fish are being a bit finicky, it holds them in the swim

for longer. That said, every day is different, like today, where just fishing meat has worked well without the addition of a second particle.

If things do go iffy though, there is nothing stopping you from starting up a second line with meat and particles just to see. It is all about watercraft and reading what the fish are trying to tell you.

I treat match fishing as a board game. You have five hours to ‘make your moves’ and determine how the game pans out. The quicker you get it right the bigger net you will end up with. Then there are other days when things change constantly, so you need to know what has changed and quickly work out how to deal with that.

Luckily, with a product like meat, the fish love it so much that things are fairly easy to read, or hopefully they are!

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POLE FISHING

Keep your cool for F1 paste success Words and photos: Steve

Martin

WILL R AISON Ag Lives: Ae: 46 ldersho t, Pole: DaSurrey iwa Air Z Sponso rs: D Pro MF say aiwa s: The epit om headede of coolness

Will Raison explains that you need a cool head if you want to catch a big bag of F1s on paste.

MIDDLE LAKE d, Aldershot, Surrey Gold Lane, Government Roa GU11 2PT www.goldvalleylakes.com

On The Hook

Roll the paste into a ball with the palm of your hand.

64 | Match Fishing

Lay the hook link mono into the paste ball.

Carefully ease the hook into the soft bait.

A flat bottom ensures the bait sits flush to the bottom.

eather conditions and the time of the year will often dictate the baits and feeds that you would consider using to target a big net of F1s. Generally, maggots and groundbait in the cooler months, expanders and micros as the weather warms up and the fish start to feed with more confidence, and casters, maggots, worms and pellets shallow once the summer arrives. They are all tried and tested tactics that catch on the day, but there is another, less common method that can be deadly during the summer months. Paste!

The tactic is a popular choice for big carp on commercial venues, but with slight modifications, it’s produced some big weights on venues where F1s dominate matches, including Middle Lake on the Gold Valley complex in Hampshire, and it’s on Peg 94 where we joined England and Daiwabacked ace Will Raison to find out his recipe for catching on the short line and in the lake’s deep margins.

“I think it’s true to say that you aren’t going to beat the anglers on the favoured swims who fish shallow in the summer, especially on hot days when F1s feed

W

pot toss e t o N tion posi

in the upper layers,” Will pointed out, as he checked the consistency of his pre-mixed ball of paste. More of his choice later.

“However, even if you aren’t on a fancied peg, and it doesn’t feel right to fish up in the water, a switch to paste on the deck can produce surprising results.

The method had been a bit of a secret, maybe not a great one here, but for a while it gave one or two an edge when others were struggling on the go-to methods.

“For me, it’s another string to the bow and when time has allowed I’ve been trying to perfect my paste fishing.

That’s not completely about the type of paste, it’s more about reading what’s happing to the bait on the bottom, and knowing when to strike.

“I will go into more details later, but first I want to look at the rigs I use and the location of the right line to fish. If you have read any of my other features, my rigs are all about strength and durability. When I expect to catch a lot of fish, be it big carp or a load of F1s, I want to have the confidence that my gear will take the punishment.

“My paste setup is no exception. I’ve a 4x14 Daiwa Carpa Pencil Paste float on

ter p wa Dee argin m

two plus t i k Top line

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| 65

POLE FISHING 0.20mm mono, and a size 12 Guru LWG hook on 0.17mm mono. It’s a tough rig, even for targeting small F1s, but it will take the punishment if I’m catching a lot of fish.

“There are lots of opinions when it comes to shot. Some like to have a bulk, some no shot at all and others a spread.

I used to fish with no shot when targeting big carp, but while I’ve been testing rigs for F1s, I’ve favoured the spread, and on this rig it’s three No9s.

“There is an added advantage with shot, as they help to lay out the rig as the bait falls through the water, and also stop the line twisting around itself as you ship out – a common problem when having no shot on the line.

“By the way, the three No9s aren’t enough to sink the rig, so that a little bristle shows.

I undershot the rig so that I can see a lift bite, or more importantly when the paste comes off the hook. It’s no good sitting there biteless when there’s no bait on the hook!

“Without the bait, my rig will sit with the whole bristle, plus 2mm of the body sitting out of the water, but once it’s fishing, only a small amount will be showing, and often just the very tip of the float.

It all depends on the size of paste ball you use, and that will vary every time.”

Having sorted two identical rigs, which Will pointed out were on black Daiwa Hybridlastic, he shipped out on a top kit plus two, and started to plumb around to find a flat area on the bottom.

“It’s really important to look for a flat area when using paste, as you want to be confident that your bait is always fishing on a smooth bottom, be it in front or down the edge.”

Once he had located a good area, Will adjusted the depth so that the whole bristle stood

66 | Match Fishing

“When I expect to catch a lot of fish, be it big carp or a load of F1s, I want to have the confidence that my gear will take the punishment.”

Small F1s dominated the session.

Confidence in your gear allows you to boss the fish to the net.

Will prefers to fish with a fine, stiff groundbait paste.

Feed micros with the paste. out of the water, but pointed out that he would readjust it if he felt that the paste was not sitting right, which he added was just on the hard on the bottom with the rig fully tensioned.

“It’s all about where you place your hook in the paste.

Some will bury the hook inside the ball, but, as you will see later, I make sure my hook sits at the base of the paste ball.”

That moved it nicely on to the paste itself.

“There are a lot of ways you can mix your paste. There was a time when the wetter and sloppier it was, the better, and maybe that’s still an option for catching big carp when bites are at a premium. However, I prefer a stiffer bait, and it’s a key factor when targeting F1s.

“For me, the paste has get to the bottom intact and be able to survive the attention of the fish as they dart in and out of the swim, knocking the rig as they look for food. Therefore is has to be stiff and sticky.

I don’t have any particular choice other than it’s a fine, fishmeal groundbait that

A slim pencil-type float offers virtually no resistance when a fish bites. doesn’t break up too quickly.

“You also want a consistency that doesn’t leave too much cloud on the bottom when you strike it off. Too much cloud could create a problem by pulling too many fish into your peg, which in turn will pull the fish up in the water causing liners and foul-hooked fish.

“I’ve mixed up half a bag

water on his side try to wet his fingers before taking a pinch of bait.

“When it comes to paste, you can’t just ship out a hook bait and hope to catch. You need to feed something to pull the fish in, and for F1s a few micros in a toss pot is my initial feed today. If I don’t then get a bite on the paste, I will add a few more, but as

into the paste. I then draw the shaft of the hook into the bait, so that the bend of the hook is at the base of the paste and the hook point is buried.

“I then mould the paste around the shaft to ensure the bait grips the hook so it doesn’t fall away as it sinks.

I square off the base of the paste to ensure the hook bend is on the bottom, and to

“It’s really important to look for a flat area when using paste, as you want to be confident that your bait is always fishing on a smooth bottom.” for this session, but if I plan to fish paste for the duration of the match, a whole 1kg bag will be more than enough.

You can always freeze the remainder if you have loads left at the end.”

The best way to describe Will’s paste is it had the consistency of dough, and with it being so sticky – and let’s not take away the fact that paste fishing is a messy business – he had a tub of

soon as the fish turn up I will rely on the struck-off hook bait to act as feed from then on.”

Will’s pot would also act as a hopper to ship the hook bait out, so after potting in half a pot of micros, he shipped out his first hook bait.

“A bait around the size of a 10mm boilie is about the right size. To ‘hook’ the bait on, I roll a pinch of paste on my leg and then lay the hook link

ensure this, once the bait is dropping in, I hold the rig just out of the water until I can feel everything straighten out and then lower the float down.

“As for the position of my pot on my top kit, I don’t place it too far from the tip. In my opinion, it needs to be just far enough so that the line hangs below and doesn’t tangle as you ship out, and I can then just reach out slightly, tip the paste out, and sit back to fish.”

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 67

POLE FISHING

To black Hybridlastic

The odd better F1 showed up in the margin.

4x14 Carpa Pencil Paste

0.20mm

It’s time to bag up when F1s get a taste for the paste.

Three No9s

6in 0.17mm Size 12 LWG Look for a flat, smooth bottom

It was clear that as soon as the paste was on the deck, Will’s float didn’t settle as it would had he been fishing a pellet. The inconstant weight of the bait, plus the knocking of fish meant that the float would dip and rise. This was the part of paste fishing that required the angler to have complete focus.

“If there is one type of fishing where I would recommend that you get plenty of practice, it’s paste.

You need to have a degree of composure and not strike at every indication. Be selective at what you strike at. I can put it in the same terms as if you were feeder fishing – you don’t strike at a line bite, therefore don’t strike at a slow-type indication. Any fast, violent take and you

68 | Match Fishing

Paste fishing can be messy, so have a tub of water handy.

will strike, so when the float shoots under, strike!

“If you keep striking and missing, that means you are constantly out of the water and not fishing, and the more missed bites, the more feed you leave on the bottom, and so the more fish feeding, which will eventually see an increase in liners and foul hooked fish. You need to cut down the amount of missed bites, and you can only do that realistically by practice and getting a feel for the tactic.

Once the fish started to feed confidently, Will caught well on his top kit plus one line. He never took his eyes off his float and as it danced and dipped, he chose the right time to strike. It wasn’t a fish every time, but over the

90 minutes he fished he only suffered a few foul-hooked fish.

“I’m catching a lot of small F1s, so I’m going to have a look down the edge to my left to see if I can find a few better fish. I had a plumb around and found a flat area, but I’m going to have another quick check as there are a few large boulders around, and it always pays to double check before that first look.”

Again, Will fed a few micros before starting and, unsurprisingly, it took a few minutes before the fish moved in. They were still on the small size, but he did catch the odd better fish.

“It’s definitely been a case of small fish today, so in a match you would need to catch a lot to build a big

weight,” Will concluded. “It’s always a case of catching what’s in front of you, and if the fish are small, then the closer in you can catch them, the better. That’s why I believe that paste is a good option, especially on overcast days, when the fish are more likely to be down in the water.

“Paste fishing can be as rewarding as it is frustrating, but on its day it can be the difference between framing, winning your section or a ‘bad day at the office’. You can’t just turn up and fish it, it’s a method that you need to get you head around if you want to get the best from it, so find a paste that you are happy with and the right rigs, and then it’s down to practice.”

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POWER MARGIN

I

n the July issue of Match Fishing our tackle tester Tom Scholey took Daiwa’s MATCHWINNER MW1 pole to the bank for a real workout. He said: “I was a little bit surprised when I took the MW1 Power Margin out of its holdall, as it doesn’t really feel like a margin pole at all. Very impressive responsiveness and I’m confident there is nothing that a standard commercial fishery can throw at this pole that it cannot handle.

“The pole is designed in the UK, and the kits

are all UK made and on the same mandrel as the other MATCHWINNER and more expensive poles, so interchange with them too. So if you have any UK made Daiwa pole, or model from the new MATCHWINNER series, your kits will fit this pole.

“Even when wet, the finish of the pole meant it flew through the hands. It handles every bit as well as any pole I have ever picked up.

Lightness, stiffness and strength – the MW1 Power Margin pole has it all. It is one of the best I have ever felt, and great value. It is also

We’re giving you the chance to win this fantastic MATCHWINNER MW1 Power Margin pole from Daiwa, worth £549!

fully interchangeable with other poles in the MATCHWINNER range, so could well serve as a good second pole alongside one of the longer models.”

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For your chance to win, simply visit www.matchfishingmagazine.com, click on Win and answer the following question. Good luck!

Q: Which UK fishery is run by Daiwa’s Will Raison?

A: Silver Lakes B: Gold Valley C: Bronze Pools Competition Terms and Conditions: To enter visit www.matchfishingmagazine.com. The winner will be selected at random from all correct entries received between midday Friday, September 3rd, and 11am Friday, October 8th, 2021.

Alternatively, you can enter by post: Daiwa Matchwinner Pole (September), Match Fishing, DHP Ltd, 1st Floor, Nene House, Sopwith Way, Daventry, Northants NN11 8AE. The editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 69

POLE FISHING

JON A Lives: O RTHUR Sponsorsxfordshire :M Sonubait atrix, MF says s : Check fantasticout Jon’s Y ouTu Channel at Jon A be rthur FISHERY RSE A COA n ERS g SOM N li n GTO g!

PACKIN 7PL CV7 y entr Cov , iden Mer Somers Road, .uk www.packingtonestate.co

t e n p e e K The Swim -in Jon Arthur analyses a close t feature in everyone’s peg tha ur yo d: ke should never be overloo keepnet!

70 | Match Fishing

O

ver the years I’ve definitely learnt the value of fishing right next to my keepnet.

It’s helped win me countless matches, scored valuable section points and got me out of jail many a time. It doesn’t matter if you’re on a lake, canal or river, fishing right next to your keepnet should never be overlooked.

It’s probably not be a place you’ll fish all day, but it’s still an area you should never disregard. Here’s why…

Canal Lessons Years of fishing matches on canals first taught me the value of a keepnet swim.

Growing up on Midlands canals it was a prime area for small fish, but you’d be surprised what else you’d catch there. At one stage I turned fishing around my nets into a bit of an art form and had specialist rigs just for this line.

Pinning the net to the

bank was crucial. It not only stopped passing boats washing it around, but also created a feature and safe haven for fish to investigate and swim under, especially perch and gudgeon.

I even made my own ultra-short whips with rigs already attached, some just a metre long. These days there are so many big fish about it’s much more sensible to use elastic instead of a whip and a 4-6 or 6-8 grade helps set the hook and bully fish quickly to the top.

On some pegs you could catch 100 gudgeon with just a metre of carbon in your hand. Sadly those days have long gone, but perch are still a worthy target.

I’d typically still have a ‘normal’ short swim three to five metres out, but the ultra-close keepnet swim is a good place to start or to try whenever a boat passes.

Here I would regularly feed a pinch of fine groundbait and trickle a few squatts

It’s surprising how big the fish can be right under your feet.

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| 71

POLE FISHING Turn your keepenets into an area that attracts fish.

“On lots of venues you can catch right in between your nets. They are often goodsized fish as well.”

or pinkies over the top.

In winter I used to love flicking pinches of neat joker when it was allowed.

Finely minced worm can be better on some canals, with a lively tail segment of worm on the hook.

Sometimes this swim would be almost touching the front of my net.

Other days it would be a foot further out, so it all depended on how it plumbed up. If I could find two feet or more I was happy. I’d often plumb tight in to the bank, either side of the net, and have two or three swims on the go, working all three. The best swims had concrete or corrugated ‘tins’ as that generally meant a bit of depth tight in.

I’ve fished countless matches where you could see the bottom close in but still caught fish hiding under the net. Sometimes the fish are so camouflaged that you’d only see them when you hooked them.

72 | Match Fishing

River Rewards I soon carried the same close-in theories to my local River Avon and, if anything, it was even better!

I practised the method loads and could regularly catch 5lb plus of perch in the first 90 minutes, which is a great start on any match!

Again, beefing up the elastic was essential. Go too soft and the perch will crash around and snag you up too easily. An 8-10 Slik is ideal with maggots and 10-12 or sometimes even heavier if fishing worms on a bigger hook.

On a river I obviously don’t pin the keepnet back as the flow takes care of that. If the river is carrying extra water the back of the keepnet becomes a natural slack for fish to take refuge.

Bleak and small silvers will typically sit behind the net, but you could just as easily catch a bonus chub if the river is up and coloured.

When I first discovered the potential of the keepnet

Perch also love the cover keepnets provide.

swim on rivers (I’m going back 30 years now!) I could keep it going by fishing it in stages. I used to start by just feeding red maggots or fluoro pinkies, just six to 10 at a time. This would catch me a few easy fish.

I’d then swap to feeding a bit of cloudy groundbait and get a second burst of action. Once that had been exhausted I’d then introduce chopped worm and that would really boost the peg. This really seemed

Jon pegs his nets with pole elastic.

to prolong the swim’s life and give the highest yield.

I definitely don’t approach rivers with as much thought these days, but perhaps I should!

7 Net Tips 1.

Get your keepnets in the swim as soon as you can, so fish in the area can get acquainted with them.

2.

Always place your nets in quietly. Never throw them in!

3.

Pin the net to the bank if you can. I use old pole elastic and a tent peg to secure it in position. Always make sure the entire net is submerged with plenty of room for the fish to swim about.

4.

A black ‘carp sack’ type net with a tight mesh weave is best.

This ensures the fish on the outside cannot see the fish on the inside.

5.

Keep your keepnets relatively high to prevent fish jumping out. Carp and chub are particularly prone to escape attempts.

6.

By placing your keepnet high it can double up as a rest when you are fishing close in, or even a rod rest when you are fishing further out.

7.

This should apply whether you fish close in or not, but check your nets for holes on a regular basis!

A brute caught right under Jon’s feet.

Commercial Gains Now we are up to the present day and a keepnet swim can be just as vital to my game plans on commercials. On lots of venues you can catch right in between your nets. They are often good-sized fish as well; crafty and opportunist feeders who have got used to a free meal from pole pots and feeders being spilled.

I often take advantage of this and will just drip

feed the area with a pinch of bait. It could be corn, meat or a pinch of pellets.

Sometimes feeding larger dollops will spook the fish; especially early on in the session. However, with an hour or less to go it’s worth doing the opposite and ‘filling it in’ to mimic packing away.

The bottom here is normally really clean from the repeated dragging out of keepnets. Plus, people throw their leftover bait in

It looks wrong but it works.

on this line all the time, whether they are supposed to or not. Angling textbooks normally say the fish come down the edge late on because people throw their leftover bait down the margins after packing up. However, I think more bait gets hoofed in just a metre or so in front of where they’ve sat, so bear that in mind!

I fish several venues that have platforms that jut out into the water a metre or so. Summer or winter, these platforms are natural features, sanctuary and bait larders. I know a few other places that are mega shallow close in, yet the fish will still pop up in between your nets – and big ones too! So, plumb this area up as a throwaway swim and throw a pinch of bait down there while you fish elsewhere. A minute spent trying it occasionally could easily produce a match-winning fish out of the blue.

On the canal I would just have a long elasticated No1 section in my hand. On a commercial, however, you

are much more likely to catch an angry carp, so gear up accordingly! A short kit will be fine for F1s, but on a proper carp lake I prefer a standard-length top two kit. This might mean fishing with half or more of the top kit jutting behind you or pointing down a bit. It might look awkward, but the extra elastic is vital.

There are two trains of thought with this swim.

One is to fish normal to light elastic and let the fish kite out gracefully once hooked.

The other is to step things up, hit the fish quickly and stun it into the net before it can bolt out to the middle of the lake. On most occasions I prefer this latter nononsense style!

I’d probably use a minimum 14-16 Slik, 0.18mm line and a decent size 14 or 12 ‘gaff’ with a big hook bait. Something like a big 8mm Sonubaits Pro Expander, a lump of paste or an 8mm to 10mm cube of meat. Avoid worms as those crafty little perch I’m targeting on canals and rivers are rarely what I’m after on a commercial!

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 73

New Gear

M ATCH FISHING CHECKS OU T THE NEW PR ODU CTS YOU WA NT TO TA KE A LOOK AT THIS MONTH…

DAIWA | TOURNAMENT 800 SEATBOX www.daiwasports.co.uk Daiwa’s top of the range seatbox is the choice of England international and exworld champion Will Raison, and when you look at the list of features it’s not hard to see why.

• System 36 – 36mm telescopic legs with 180° rotating locking handwheels • Aluminium and steel construction with integrated retractable footplate • Fully interchangeable ‘stack system’ with easy click layers each featuring a ‘ridge/recess’ compression seal • Supplied with 20mm winder tray (perforated) • Two shallow side drawers and adjustable dividers • Fixed 20mm shallow unit • Lift out stack system supplied with 64 slide winders (30 short/20 long/14 wide) • Two 20mm shallow winder trays • 20mm base unit with rubber feet • Supplied with two tone pole seat and shoulder strap RRP: £699

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A versatile line, it can be used for all your reel line needs, whether feeder or float fishing. Its high performance comes from its smoothness, low stretch and low diameter to strength ratio, which makes it easy to cast longer and more accurately. The low stretch also helps with bite detection on the feeder and hitting bites on the pellet waggler, while its high abrasion resistance means it lasts a long time, even when you’re catching plenty of fish.

A subtle natural green colour, it comes on 300m spools with a line marker at 150 metres to enable you to load more than one reel.

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74 | Match Fishing

NUFISH | PTFE POLE BUSHES www.nufish.co.uk Precision machined PTFE is used to produce these perfectly formed pole bushes, which have been designed to have the thinnest of wall thicknesses to give more internal clearance inside the pole for the elastic to run and a crisp neat shoulder for seamless fitting.

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SHIMANO | AERO X5 MATCH FLOAT 13FT fish.shimano-eu.com This three-piece 13ft float rod is the ideal tool for running a float down a river for chub, whether a stick or waggler – something many of us have forgotten the pleasures of doing. It will also be spot on for fishing the waggler in autumn and winter on silver fish matches on commercials, where the odd F1 may make an appearance and will be quickly tamed with this rod.

Weighing in at just 162g you hardly notice you’re holding it and the strong and responsive high modulus + HPC (High Pressure Carbon) + Nanosheet blanks are furnished with 15 Super light Seaguide XOG anti-tangle guides (two double-foot rings at the butt then single-leg intermediates) and a Shimano DPS reel seat with a 22½in cork plus EVA handle.

It looks very sleek, with a carbon grey finish, high-gloss black whippings and blue trimmings on the butt section, while the hollow carbon tip section has a progressive action with a through action tip to enable you to use light lines and small hooks. Ideally suited to waggler work and able to cope with any chub or F1 you might encounter while remaining light, responsive and crisp on the cast with quick line pick-up.

This rod will work best with light lines from 3lb to 5lb and will cast floats from 3AAA up to 20g.

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| 75

New Gear

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76 | Match Fishing

sonuBaits | POWER SCOPEX HAZE www.sonubaits.com sonubaits haze is a range of liquids designed to enhance, colour and flavour your hook baits, pellets or groundbait prior to use. thinner in consistency than the bait giant’s lava liquids it is extremely userfriendly and can be applied yearround, yet is still denser than water, which ensures it clings to and remains around your bait, leaking an attractive cloud of colour and scent into the immediate surroundings. comes in a generous bottle with screw cap and nozzle to ensure easy squeasy application. it has long been available in eight of sonubaits’ popular flavours – Banoffee, pineapple & coconut, krill & squid, washedout, Fluoro, chocolate orange, Bloodworm and spicy sausage – and it is now also available in power scopex. this is the additive of choice for commercial legend harry Billing, who used it to great effect to claim second place in the recent sonubaits Veterans championship (see p108 for our full report). power scopex is a super-sweet liquid with a rich yellow colour and will appeal to anglers targeting bream, skimmers and F1s – but big carp love it too!

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Up Close

UP CLOSE: MIDDY 11.5M XTREME M3 MK II

XTREME PERFORMANCE! Tom Scholey takes the Middy M3 MK II for a hectic afternoon workout at Lindholme Lakes…

T

here is something very empowering about gearing up for an afternoon margin session.

Thick lines, big hooks, strong elastics… and then the bit that makes every angler feel a little more uneasy… the choice of carbon.

Fishing for big fish on heavy tackle puts strain on everything, which is why a margin pole is such a popular tool in the commercial angler’s armoury.

They can fish with it with confidence, knowing it can handle the rigours of angry carp, and without risking the ‘crown jewel’ pole that they use for their general fishing.

But as I took the Middy M3 out of its bag, it didn’t feel like a margin pole at all. Remarkably light, very stiff, and with a lovely, smooth, ‘slik slide’ finish.

No, this pole felt more like you might expect a pole costing upwards of £1,000 to behave, especially at the 9m and 11.5m lengths.

78 | Match Fishing

Further reading on the Middy website revealed that it is the pole’s performance in the areas of balance and stiffness that has been improved compared to the MK1 model.

According to Middy, the G-Pulse Fighter-Carbon fibres are made closer in proximity to each other, to create a parabolic super-tough action, without compromising weight and overall balance.

There were a couple of other nice features too. A prefitted Nose Dome in the No4 section, and section alignment arrows for optimum performance give the feeling of a very refined piece of kit indeed. Miles apart from the rough and ready hit-and-hold type margin poles of yesteryear.

Moving on to the top kits, and again, a very nice refined product. A predrilled groove to help create a puller type kit, and a pre-cut No2 ready to house the bush.

Supplied with the pole is a standard (black) top kit, and an aptly named ‘Shadow Zero’ kit in white, perfect if you happen to believe that black kits spook fish. Both these kits are rated to a 30+ elastic, while the match kit in the pole is rated to a 22+ elastic.

I put in some new No17 hollow elastic, and I was good to go. Tacticswise, I had a simple plan. I wanted to try two lines, one in deeper water up to the pallet at the full 11 metres of pole to allow me to really give it a workout at short length, and another line in shallower water a little closer, to finish the session on. Feeding hard pellets next to the pallet, I was soon into good fish, including a common of 8 to 9lb that really gave the pole a workout. What can I say, it performed fantastically, super-strong and even though the walls feel a little softer than they do on some margin poles, it never really broke a sweat. A super-strong

piece of kit.

A few F1s soon muscled in on this swim though, and while this was a good thing in that it allowed me to really test the poles responsiveness in hitting the super-fast bites, I was soon itching to get in the shallower water and try and catch some more carp!

They were very obliging, and soon I was in full bagging mode. The top

kits in particular really impressed me.

A great length of elastic – not too long that you have loads out and lots of puller kitting is needed, but not too short that you ever feel really in danger when a fish goes on a big run.

I finished the session really satisfied with the pole, and to be honest the more I read about the package and spares available the more this impression was reinforced. Reversible Fighter Half Butts are available for the No4/5 and No6/7 sections. There is also an extension available to take the pole to 13 metres – or you can simply buy the 13m package – and a G-Pulse Cupp Kit. For those who owned the original M3, perhaps the best news is that this pole was built on the same mandrel – so all kits and sections can be interchanged.

Any criticisms? There were two small things that caught my eye. Firstly

the presentation. Bearing in mind the pole retails for £599.99, I would expect a little bit more than the flimsy pole sleeve it is supplied in. I would like the pole to be in a plastic tube, as it is susceptible to a knock or damage in transit as supplied, because the only thing protecting the carbon is a thin layer of cloth.

Secondly, again given the retail price I would like to see a cupping kit included, as potting bait in is essential when edge fishing, so this would certainly be of use to most anglers. This is a minor point though, as a cupping kit is available separately.

On balance, the pole and package are among the best that I have ever seen for a power pole, and I would urge anyone in the market to take a look – you will not be disappointed.

RRP: 11.5m package 13m package

£599.99 £699.99

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| 79

Match Fishing Live

y move as tackled a This month we asked Des Shipp if we could follow his ever near Evesham. midweek open on the Island Pool at Manor Farm Leisure MANOR FARM LEISURE Harvington, Evesham WR11 8PA www.manorfarmleisure.co.uk/ fishing

DES SHIPP Age: Lives: Yate 51 Sponsors: , Bristol Innovations Preston , Sonubaits MF Brilliant on says: any and any ve method nue

09:40

t’s always interesting fishing a match on a venue you don’t know and when I turned up at Manor Farm Leisure’s Island Pool for one of their Wednesday open matches, I had no idea

I

what to expect. It was only a small match but the advantage of that is it gave us all plenty of room, and after speaking with venue regular Neil McKinnon before the start, a weight of around 150lb was expected

09:55 Bait-wise I’ve got plenty of pellets (2mm, 4mm and 6mm) with me because it’s a venue dominated by pellets. Hard pellet is the way to go because there’s a lot of small fish in here, which I want to avoid, and you have to net every fish here so the fewer small fish the better!

I’ve also got four tins of meat cut into 7mm cubes with me and I might change to meat on the short line later depending on how it goes. Finally, I’ve got some sweetcorn that I’ll mix in with my meat for feeding down the edge, and some groundbait mixed up but not sure if I’ll need it – if it’s going pearshaped I might need to put some in.

80 | Match Fishing

to be needed to win. At the draw, the fishery staff have pulled out Peg 18 for me and the look on Neil’s face said it all! Not the best of pegs apparently but with plenty of room you never know.

Although I’ve been to this venue to do magazine features and filming in the past, I’ve only ever fished one match here and that was in the depths of winter when it was iced over.

The lake is well known for its large F1s but there are now some small stockies, which could be a nuisance when I’m looking to catch bigger fish. There are carp in here as well to double figures and if they feed a really big weight is on the cards.

I’ve got the wind in my face on this bank, which rules out the pellet waggler (I know a lot of fish get caught on the pellet wag here), but I’ve got the island for fishing a Method feeder with pellets up to. I’ve also heard that they don’t really catch much here on the short pole but I’ve got to be honest, with the wind blowing at me I really fancy it to catch short so I think I’m going to go against the grain and start short on hard pellets and see what happens. If it doesn’t work I can always go out on the Method feeder.

I’ve got the margins too and hopefully later in the match I might get one or two fish there, and I’ll also feed hard pellet long at 13 metres with the aim of catching shallow but that could be difficult in this wind.

10:15 My rigs for the match, starting with the Method feeder setup. For this I’ve got a 9ft Ignition feeder rod with 8lb Sinking Mono on the reel, a small 30g ICS elasticated Method feeder to 0.17mm hooklength and a size 16

KKH with a small band for fishing Band’Ums or hard pellets on the hook.

On to my pole rigs and the first thing to note is that I haven’t set a rig up for fishing on the deck long. It’s probably eight feet deep on the long pole line and with it being

warm, I think to do any good I’ll need to catch shallow on the long pole or on the Method, short pole or down the edge. My shallow rig has a 4x10 Carp shallow float that I’ve got set at two feet deep, because Neil was telling me earlier that they don’t really catch any shallower than that on this lake. I’ve also set two short line rigs up to fish a top kit plus two, and a top kit plus one. I really fancy this because of that wind but chatting to Neil it’s not something they do here because it doesn’t seem to work, which amazes me!

The top kit plus two rig

has a 4x14 Inline Diamond float and the top kit plus one, where it’s one foot shallower, has a 4x12 Inline Diamond.

I’ve got a 4x12 Carp Shallow set up for fishing down the edge and I fancy feeding hard pellets down there to begin with because of all the small fish.

I’ve got No13 Dura Slip elastic on all my rigs because I’m expecting fish of all sizes on every line and this elastic is perfect for that. All my rigs are on 0.19mm main lines to 0.15mm hooklengths except the shallow rig, which has a finer 0.13mm hooklength for those cute F1s.

10:30 All in and because I’m starting on the short pole, I’ve made up half a dozen balls of micro pellets that I’m going to catapult next to the island on my feeder line to get some bait over there. With that bait introduced, it’s straight in on the short pole with a hard 6mm pellet on the hook. I’m loose feeding a few 6mm pellets over the top and catapulting 4mm pellets on to my long shallow line. A few pellets go down the edge as well and with all the initial feeding done it’s time to start concentrating on getting a few bites. The wind is perfect for the short pole so let’s see if going against the grain is going to pay off.

10:55 In the opening 25 minutes on the short two-plustwo line I’ve had a couple of small skimmers, a big F1, a small F1 and a small carp and missed a couple of bites, so the fishing hasn’t been great. The angler to my right has had a couple of big carp on the Method fished three-quarters of the way across, but it’s important not to panic because I’m still feeling my way into it and am still building the peg.

I’m looking closely at Neil, who is two to my right and he’s only had one carp on the Method so far, so from what I can see I’m not falling too far behind.

My big F1 was 5lb so that’s equivalent to a carp and that’s why it’s important to look at what and where other anglers are catching because it helps you with decision making. I’ll probably go on the Method soon but from what I can see I’m doing okay on this for now.

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Match Fishing Live

11:28 I had a few more small fish on the short pole and then about 20 minutes ago I switched to the Method feeder across to the island with a Scopex Band’Um on the hook. Unfortunately, I lost a big carp that broke me and I’ve had another decent F1 and some smaller ones and a couple of skimmers.

The bites have been coming at between 45 seconds and two minutes and that’s what I’m looking for; if I have to wait longer than that then it’s not really fast enough unless the fish are all 4lb plus. My next fish feels like another good carp that tears away to my right and to try and stop it from going too far right I ended up putting too much pressure on the and the hook pulled out! Two decent carp hooked, two decent carp lost!

I’m still keeping the pellets going in on the pole lines for later.

11:57 I’m still fishing the Method and have had another couple of decent F1s since I last checked in with you but now I seem to be getting a lot of small taps, which I think are those really small F1s. I’ve not seen a lot being caught, which is why I’m still on this, with the exception of the angler on Peg 6, which is the noted flyer, who has had some decent carp and F1s on the feeder. I have to forget about him though, and just concentrate on my peg and compared to Neil and the other anglers to my left and right, I’m doing okay.

Neil says he’s got 12lb at the minute and I reckon I’ve got 25lb. Venues like this can turn on very quick though, and that’s what I’m hoping for at some point during the match, otherwise it’s going to be hard going all day.

12:28 I’ve had to come off the Method feeder because the fish got smaller and smaller and then the bites fizzled out completely, and I’ve also tried the long pole shallow but only managed to catch one roach.

I’m now back on my two plus two line and have had a couple of F1s and some small skimmers and carp on hard pellet so the fishing is really tough.

I’m still hoping that it will switch on at some point because as time goes on, I’m falling further and further behind the angler on Peg 6, but I am catching more than anyone else that I can see. Having said that the angler to my right is now catching small F1s and small carp on the deck on the long pole so I might regret not setting that up. There are still three hours to go so there’s plenty of time left yet.

82 | Match Fishing

12:59 I’m still fishing my top kit plus two line and I’ve just had a nice carp around 4lb and a decent F1 on it, as well as small F1s and a few skimmers. I’m getting bites but they’re not the right sort of fish really but I’m sticking with it for now, because apart from the angler on Peg 6, I’m catching more fish than the other anglers I can see.

I’ve started feeding a few 4mm pellets on this line as well as the 6mms and it’s definitely increased the number of bites and fish I’m getting. I was thinking about going back on the Method but I’ve seen others go back on it and then switch back to the pole so that makes me think I’m better of sticking with this and taking whatever comes along for now because I am catching fish.

Not knowing the venue isn’t helping but I just feel this short line is right. I’ve still got the margins for later although I can see Neil is fishing down the edge now and has only had a couple of small fish; he must be struggling if he’s looking down the edge this early.

13:14 I’m definitely seeing signs of improvement on my top kit plus two line and in the last half an hour I’ve unfortunately lost a couple of carp but the smaller F1s and skimmers have been coming regularly. I’m now certain this is the right thing to do on this part of the lake and it’s a case of taking what comes along and then keeping my fingers crossed that the big fish do switch on eventually.

Peg 6 is having it away compared to the rest of us as far as I can see, and I have to forget about him and not let it affect the way I’m approaching my peg. I had a skimmer last chuck and now I’m into what feels like a carp, which I manage to land and at 5lb it’s very welcome. I’m still feeding 4mm and 6mm pellets on this line and fishing a banded hard 6mm on the hook.

13:44 The last half an hour has been good and I’ve had four or five big F1s and plenty of stockies. I don’t really want to come off this line now because it’s slowly got better over the last hour.

I’m now accepting that winning the match is probably out of the question because the angler on Peg 6 is still catching decent fish regularly, so I’m using the other anglers that I can see to gauge how I’m doing.

I’m still feeding the margins and now we’re coming into the last 90 minutes of the match I have to start thinking about whether I’m going to have a look down there or not. But for now, I’m sticking with my short line.

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Match Fishing Live

14:00 Well, this is an interesting development! A few minutes ago I decided to try a cube of 7mm meat on the hook and I’ve caught five big F1s in quick succession, which is just ridiculous! I started missing bites on hard pellet so I took the band off the hook and mounted a cube of meat just to try it, and the response has been unbelievable!

The bites are completely different too and they’re so positive that it’s almost impossible to miss them. I don’t know how long it will last, we’ll just have to wait and see in that regard. Just before I tried meat on the hook, I also fed a big pot of meat and corn on my top kit plus one line so it will be interesting to see if they move in over that.

On my top kit plus two line I’m still feeding 4mm and 6mm pellets and after catching my fifth big F1 in as many casts, my float has only been back in for 30 seconds before I’m in again… I can’t believe the transformation and I’m kicking myself a bit for not trying it earlier. I’m probably too far behind Peg 6 to catch him up and it might not last, but it’s fantastic fishing! I’ve also started feeding some meat down the edge but I’d be a fool to come off this at the moment.

14:40 Well I’ve had a great run on the meat and I’ve just landed a 9lb carp that took the bait before it got to the bottom, which is nice bonus but those bigger fish seem to have backed off now. I have tried my top kit plus one line and I thought I would be in business straightaway but I never had a bite on that line so I’m back on my top kit plus two line again.

I’m now thinking about my margins but as long as I’m still getting the odd big fish on this line I’m tempted to stick with it. I’ve just added a bit more depth to the rig and am swinging the rig out straight in front and then letting the breeze bring it back into the shelf and that has produced another big F1 straightaway. It’s a tough decision to move now but I’ll have to decide what to do very quickly now time is running out.

15:15 I’ve still caught some decent F1s on meat on my top kit-plus-two line since I last spoke to you, but the draw of the margins can’t be ignored any longer! After feeding meat on my top kit plus one line and not getting bitted out there, I decided to start feeding meat down the edge and 10 minutes ago I saw movement to my right, so I had to go and have a look. I managed a 4lb bream first put in and that was followed by a 9lb carp before a couple of stockies have got me thinking I need to try the margin swim to my left before the siren goes to end the match.

84 | Match Fishing

COLOUR, FLAVOUR & ENHANCE YOUR BAIT • 9 intense flavours 15:30 Well, the left hand margin swim has produced two decent carp, another big bream and a couple of good skimmers so since I went down the edge I’ve probably caught over 30lb of fish. It’s been a good finish to the match and although I haven’t beaten Peg 6, I think I’ve caught more than the other anglers I’ve been able to see and, regardless of the result, it’s been a fantastic day’s fishing.

I think my decision to go against the grain and fish short has been the right one, even though there were times when I doubted it was. Sometimes you have to ignore what’s happening around you and stick to your guns and waiting for it to switch on was the right decision. However, if

I hadn’t switched to meat I wouldn’t have caught anywhere near as many fish and to have the instant impact it did, it just proves that those big fish were in the swim all along but were very cautious about my pellet on the hook.

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15:43 The angler on Peg 6 has weighed in 160lb and Neil has had 84lb and I reckon I’ve got somewhere in between those two weights. After three weighs I’ve recorded 156lb so just one carp short of winning the match! It was very close in the end and the run of fish I had on the meat has helped me to nearly pip Peg 6 at the post and I’m kicking myself a bit for not trying it sooner.

Maybe trying down the edge earlier might have got me that extra fish too, and I’ve lost several carp today as well and any one of those would have done it for me.

I’ll definitely know for next time!

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Washed Out

Bloodworm

Maggot Feeder

Making a ‘pig’ of things!

Photos: Mark Parker

RIVER TRENT, GUNTHORPE WEIR www.nottsfed.com

The maggot feeder, or ‘plastic pig’ as it was once called, has gone out of fashion for some reason. Rob Perkins would very much like to sing its praises and right that wrong. t’s hard to imagine now, looking at how the river is fished, but back in the late 1970s a black cloud was looming over the River Trent in the shape of a somewhat controversial method that was beginning to make waves. The method was the maggot feeder!

Dubbed the ‘plastic pig’, it was the cause of much distain. But why? What was it about the maggot feeder that caused such controversy and feelings of hatred!

Well, hard though it is to believe, at the time it was so crude and so effective that it was regarded with real disdain. Anglers who had spent years perfecting their float fishing techniques found themselves getting beaten by feeder anglers.

It really was seen as highly unsporting and some

I

86 | Match Fishing

ROB PERK INS Age: 55 Lives: Nottin Sponsors: gham Shi Dynamite Bmano/ ai MF says: ts Knows the the back of Trent like his hand

A dace on its way to the net.

Proof that they’re hoovering up the feed.

anglers threw their toys out of their prams so far that they even left match fishing because of it!

Thankfully, sanity has returned and we’ve now had 40 years to calm down… or most of us have!

As with all new methods, eventually the furore died down. As the fish inevitably got wise to it, it had to be refined and eventually became just another method in our armoury. And now it is looked upon as just another viable tactic, which can work well on its day, but like all methods, things are never guaranteed in match fishing.

Making A ‘Pig’ Of Things At first, the pig was supercrude, with 2.5 to 3lb test

curve carp rods being used to hurl the feeder to the far bank, around 70 yards or more, where chub had lain undisturbed for years. A big Dinsmore feeder with some roofing lead wrapped around the side was the weapon of choice. So, like I say, it is easy to see why the purists were up in arms about what we were doing!

To make thing worse (for them) we often fished the tactic with 5lb Maxima direct to the feeder, combined with a short hook link, as little as four inches at times, to a big, strong hook holding a great big bunch of maggots.

The idea was to get the chub to home in on the feeder and literally fill their boots – or stomachs – on what they perceived to be a load of free

grubs. It was the then river version of the commercial Method feeder, you could say.

And like the Method is on commercial pools, it was just as deadly on flowing water.

Unlike today, where fantastic tackle shops and manufacturers offer a host of bespoke tackle items, in those early days if we wanted a certain style of feeder etc. we basically had to make a trip to the shed and adapt our own tackle. I have spent many hours splicing quivertips into rods and tinkering with feeders as there were none suitable for the job.

This ‘in the shed’ mentality eventually led tackle manufacturers to see a gap in the market and as a result, heavy feeder rods started cropping up in various tackle

catalogues, along with bigger and better feeders and leads being produced to match these larger rods.

Also, techniques evolved, with balanced feeders, bolt rigs, bouncing feeders and even something known as the dink-dink developed for the bug-eyed hybrids known as ‘pommies’ on the river.

Dink-Dink!

The dink-dink is a method that is often overlooked on the Trent these days. Sadly, it is often only ever used to explore an inviting far bank tree line for example, but being a variant of the maggot feeder setup, it can offer so much more. It’s a method that I love to use, largely because it catches quite literally anything and

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Maggot Feeder

Trent dace are a good stamp.

The dink-dink hook link.

“I have enjoyed many pleasure fishing days, travelling light, with just the minimum of tackle and a maggot feeder approach.” rarely makes an appearance on the banks of the Trent these days.

For me, it’s this ability to attract everything that makes the dink-dink such a great method.

The Setup

everything. After all, what fish in the Trent won’t eat a juicy maggot or three?

Through the last year, which saw us being unable to match fish, I have enjoyed many pleasure fishing days, travelling light, with just the minimum of tackle and a maggot feeder approach.

During these various sessions, I had the pleasure to catch good barbel, chub, bream, roach, perch, dace, eels and even a few elusive gudgeon as well, a fish that

88 | Match Fishing

Now that’s a good dace!

Today I have come down to one of the many Notts Federation stretches of the river, a couple of hundred yards below Gunthorpe weir.

Typically, as the cameras are with me, it’s a baking hot day and the river is very low and clear, making conditions less than ideal you could say!

On the plus side though, this section has a decent pace

Rob traps the hook link with float stops.

due to the large weir just upstream, so things could be worse!

Regarding my tackle, I have set up two rods, both of which I have clipped up at 30 metres. This I would say is just past the middle of the river and is a great area here at Gunthorpe, as it puts me right into the heart of the main channel where the water is at its deepest. In these hot bright conditions, if the fish are going to be anywhere, it will be here I reckon.

Both rods are my trusted 12ft Shimano Beastmasters, complete with 2oz carbon tips.

Carbon I find is a bit stiffer, so perfect for the amount of flow

He uses braid on the reel for better bite detecton.

“The majority of fish are now hooking themselves rather than me having to strike.”

This style of blockend feeder works well on the Trent.

You never know what you’ll catch on the dink-dink.

A pinch of hemp goes into the feeder first.

I have. I have then coupled the rods with Shimano Aero Match reels loaded with 0.10mm Browning Feeder Braid. I prefer braid in these conditions as the bites are so much more positive.

The first rod – and the one I generally start my sessions using – is tackled up to fish my ‘normal’ setup. This consists of a 6lb Technium

shockleader with a double loop setup to take the ‘sting’ out of the braid. The double loop rig I use is tied with a snap link swivel to which the feeder is attached and finished off with a Cralusso hook link swivel, enabling me to quickly change hooklengths as and when needed. These are tied into a big loop about eight inches long. The snap link swivel is then trapped at the reel end of the loop with a double overhand knot, leaving about an inch or so for the swivel to run in.

I then trap the hook link swivel as close to the other end as possible. Finally, I tie another double overhand knot in between the swivels to keep the boom ‘stiffer’ and help prevent tangles. I have used this rig for years and have tried all manner of others but this is the one I keep coming back to. It is simple to use, effective and importantly rarely tangles.

The Second Setup My second rod again has a 6lb Technium shockleader but the

end rig is a helicopter setup.

This is effectively a dink-dink rig.

I trap a Cralusso hook link swivel between two Guru sliding float stops and then tie a snap link swivel on the end for the feeder. The hooklength is then attached to the Cralusso swivel about 18 inches to two feet above the feeder and is only around three to four inches long.

The dink-dink setup is incredibly direct, as by having a short hooklength trapped above the feeder, bites are extremely positive. It really comes into its own when the bites are coming thick and fast! It is also the perfect setup to fool those big old wary chub that have seen it all before.

There was a period at East Bridgford when you got far more bites fishing the dinkdink than with a conventional feeder rig. It was difficult to understand why, as the hook bait on both rigs would be fluttering about at roughly the same distance from the feeder.

The only reason I can come up with is that maybe the

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| 89

Maggot Feeder

Rob uses a 12ft rod with a 2oz carbon tip.

Proof that the Trent is thriving!

Plenty of bites and fish for Rob.

hook bait on the dink-dink rig was fluttering about an inch or two off the bottom and the chub had learnt to avoid the maggots trundling along on the river bed? After all, at the time they were fished for week in week out!

Bait Choice Today’s bait menu is simplicity itself. I have come armed with four pints of bronze, red and ‘disco’ maggots. I also have a couple of pints of hemp, which acts as a holding bait for the large fish, especially the big roach and barbel. For a slight change, I have also brought a bag of crushed hemp, just in case. This is something I find useful on harder days.

I simply mix the crushed hemp on the sloppy side and then add a few full grains of hemp into the mix. This explodes out of the feeder in a milky cloud and is a great attractor, particularly on faster flow stretches where the smell and attraction wash downstream for a long way.

The final part of my baiting jigsaw is a handful of floating maggots as hook baits.

Fishing Tactics It’s probably worth mentioning how I set my rod rest these days too. Today, it’s set so the tip is roughly at

90 | Match Fishing

eye level, as I am sat down. I often set it even lower these days as the flow on the river is much slower than it used to be and I find that I can keep a more direct contact to the feeder after it has settled and as a consequence I hit far more of the quick bites you get as the feeder is settling.

I start the day on my conventional setup, with a small 40g Kamasan Black Cap feeder and quickly find I need another half-ounce strap lead on the side to hold bottom.

My starting hooklength is three feet of 0.14mm Shimano Aspire, coupled with a size 16 Guru Match Special hook. Filling the feeder with neat maggots to start with, I have a quick bite on my first chuck. The single maggot hook bait is shredded and the same happens on the following chuck. This sees me change to a 2ft hook link with a size 14 hook and now I am hitting most of my bites and starting to put a few chunky dace in the net.

After the initial few chucks with just maggots in the feeder, I start introducing hemp into the peg. The payload in the feeder is roughly 50:50, which I feel will create a nice bed of bait to hold the fish in my swim for longer.

After a couple of hours catching steadily, I begin to miss bites again as the bigger fish possibly back off?

It seems that even double maggot is quickly getting ragged by tiddlers, even on the shortish 2ft hook link I’m using.

I then decide to try the dink-dink rig, setting the helicopter hook link about 18 inches above the feeder.

The hook link is a 3in length of 0.14mm Aspire again, to a size 14 Guru Match Special.

This instantly sees me getting bites coming thick and fast, but the majority of fish are now hooking themselves rather than me having to strike. It is also producing a noticeably bigger stamp of dace. If fact,

during one period, the fish were on before the feeder had touched the river bed!

All in all it’s been a fast and at times hectic few hours fishing for a lovely double figure net of dace. That said, although today has seen me catch nearly all quality dace – apart from one solitary perch, which managed to barge its way in – on another day, it could have been roach or chub or even a net of barbel, which to me is the beauty of the dink-dink and the maggot feeder in general really.

Yes, it might not be as skilful as guiding a stick float down the river, but I certainly think it is a method that should have a place in every river angler’s armoury.

Events

PRESTON INNOVATIONS UK POLE CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIER TWO PA C K I N G T O N S O M E R S F I S H E RY The second qualifier for the Preston Innovations UK Pole Championship took place recently at Packington Fisheries, where a great head-to-head battle ensued over two of the venue’s lakes.

Aidan Mansfield was qu ickly into a stream of F1s.

venue.

Packington is a very scenic

Draw time.

Y

ou set a date for a match in July and you get wall to wall sunshine, right? Well, not exactly.

Our anglers lined up for this match on four lakes at Packington Somers Fishery – Molands, Little Gearys and Siblings A and B – with nobody knowing where the winner was going to come from, or what the weather would be. Foremost on everybody’s mind though, was the task of qualifying for the final in September.

The qualification system means that the winner of every section of three anglers gets through, while the top four weights take the prize money and

92 | Match Fishing

the best weight from every six pegs (sometimes by default or even double default) takes the section money.

Frustratingly, once again there were several no-shows at the draw, meaning some sections of three became two anglers. If you were in one of those your odds of qualifying suddenly increased.

Soon after the match started (grey skies, chilly), anglers all over the complex were into fish, and as we took our initial walk round it seemed that most people were catching. After a while (sunshine and clouds, warm) as the match settled down there seemed

to be two standout performers, both very good anglers who had drawn favoured pegs. Opinion between neutral observers before the start had been split between which of these two would win it. Aidan Mansfield on Little Gearys Peg 15 was going fish for fish with Kerry Kirkwood over on Sibs B Peg 7. Neither knew this though and were concentrating on their own games. Both were fishing shallow, Aidan using 4mm pellets while Kerry favoured casters.

As anglers on all of the lakes being used hit their stride (thundery rain showers) it was clear that some areas

Dave Willmott was catching well throughout.

TOP FOUR 1 Aidan Mansfield, Little Gearys 15 2 Kerry Kirkwood, Siblings B 7 3 Anthony Gould, Molands 43 4 Dave Willmott, Siblings B 13 SECTIONS Molands 2 to 13 Molands 15 to 25 Molands 27 to 41 Molands 42 to 48 Molands 50 to 60 Little Gearys 1 to 9 Little Gearys 11 to 19 Little Gearys 21 to 29 Siblings A 2 to 19 Siblings B 3 to 13

184lb 12oz 171lb 15oz 133lb 11oz 124lb 6oz

Steve Bellion Phil Reynolds John Burchell Ryan Morgan (D) Gary Rogers Dave Brown John Brown (D) Carl Lee Hopps Jon Arthur Ben Sutor (DD)

115lb 13oz 54lb 0oz 39lb 8oz 63lb 0oz 48lb 4oz 121lb 14oz 94lb 10oz 1222lb 15oz 45lb 7oz 97lb 10oz

Aidan Mansfield was a worthy winner.

The top four.

Kerry Kirkwood with his second-placed catch.

QUALIFIERS: Little Gearys Dave Brown • Stuart Eaton • John Brown • Aidan Mansfield • Mark Poppleton Carl Lee Hopps Siblings A Jon Arthur • Andrew Taylor Siblings B Ben Sutor • Kerry Kirkwood Molands Dan Ashington • Stephen Bellion • Phil Reynolds • Harry Billing • Adam Godwin • John Burchell • Anthony Gould • Mark Jaques • Gary Rogers • Bryn Elliott

were better than others. Molands, like the weather, was moody in places, although Stephen Bellion on Peg 8 and Anthony Gould on 43 were working hard and putting fish in the net, while directly behind Kerry on the snake lake Sibs B 13 Dave Willmott was also feeding his nets with regular helpings of F1s and carp. Meanwhile over on Little Gearys Peg 5 Dave Brown wasn’t letting Aidan have it all his own way and was catching well. When the sun made one of its rare appearances (hot and steamy) Sibs A wasn’t showing its best side but still Aidan and Kerry – who almost didn’t make it to the match with transport problems – were catching F1s one a bung. With an hour to go (absolutely torrential downpour) it was indeed going to be between these two unless something dramatic happened.

As the match drew to a close and the scales went round (thunder, lightning,

threatening rain) despite a great 133lb on Molands from Anthony for third place, Kerry weighed in a fantastic 171lb 15oz. Thanks to the magic of weighers-in with walkie talkies Aidan, on the far side of the fishery, now knew he had that to beat as his turn came.

Would he have enough?

As the weights from his nets were totted up his total was called as 184lb 12oz, and with no other threats to him left to weigh in, he had done it. Now to quickly get the gear back in the cars before the heavens opened again (very wet!).

Thankfully the rain stopped for long enough for the results to be worked out and announced, and the 20 qualifiers from this match will join those from Q1 at Aston Fields last month and the Q3 match at Alders Farm in August, in the Final at Woodland View in September.

And finally, the sun came out… briefly.

Winner’s Verdict Aidan Mansfield Draw-wise I was happy with where I was as it’s a decent area. My setup was really simple, starting down the edge with groundbait and maggots while priming a long shallow line with pellets at 14.5 metres.

I had half an hour down the edge catching three F1s and then dropped on my shallow line, catching well in spells and resting it when it needed it by going back down the edge. I’ve ended up with 67 F1s and thought they would go about 180lb.

If I can fish the Final (work dependent) I’m looking forward to it as Woodland View is one of my favourites when it comes to proper carp fishing.

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Team Talk

THE ‘GRAND’ N AT IONAL Kye Jerrom returns with his view on team fishing, and he gets things under way with the biggest match of the year.

F

irst things first – I’m back, and happy to be here! Things were a bit slow on the team front through spring and early summer so I gave my pen a few months off for ‘R and R’! Having said that the lads have still been fishing and we’ve had a few team matches on the tidal Trent, which have been good, seventh and fourth so far has been steady! We have anglers qualifying for some of the big finals at the moment, with Colin Oakman, myself and Andrew Moss through to the RiverFest on the Trent and Andy Leathers and Mossy also through to the Feeder Masters at Tamar – the lull in team fishing giving our anglers a chance of some individual fishing!

The biggest team match of the year is always the Angling Trust Division One National and it’s great that this is the match I’m returning with! For what seems like years there was lots of speculation about this one. Will there be any fish? How many blanks will there be? Will teams be able to get enough interest to get a squad on the bank even!?

96 | Match Fishing

We had mixed Initially booked for results in practising 2020 the Div One but as always and Div Two were that investment both postponed by was invaluable in a year due to Covid coming up with a restrictions and it’s decent team plan. fair to say several had hoped it would be cancelled and leapfrog to the next venues.

Why the concern?

Well the Grand Union Canal has struggled with the impact of zander, which for at least 10 years has seen the canal fishing change a great deal.

With that demise came fewer matches, and eventually it evaporated as a big match water – a shame really as in the 1990s it was a bit of a Mecca venue! I think it was a brave decision for the controlling club – Northampton Nene – to put it forward as a host venue (all National venues need to be offered only the Durrant brothers to the Angling Trust for had fished it regularly, we consideration), but would didn’t know it at all as a it be a disaster? Would the team and were swayed haters be proved wrong? a little by the negative For a National this was a hype. Our approach to tough match for us to work Nationals is always the on. Although less than same, investing efforts in an hour for many of us sourcing good quality local

knowledge and time relevant (fishing as close to the National day) practice. We kept an eye on a local spring league, which really struggled to get off the ground and the results through to June really were looking worrying.

We were optimistic though, as many people seemed to forget the cold start to the year (25 frosts in April), which was always going to slow the fishing down. I spoke to several other teams’ anglers who instead of gaining an advantage from being on the canal early had become very disillusioned and unmotivated.

It’s the reason we don’t invest effort until nearer the time, the fishing changes and early exposure can do more harm than good.

We started off with a couple of Angling Trust/ Canal & River Trust pairs matches in June and July and finished with a flurry

A pre-match Zoom catch-up, very much the norm these days. In fact we still haven’t seen each other as a squad for more than a year!

of opens and the individual National two weeks prior to the big day. We could see the canal was changing for the better, with more skimmers showing and the odd roach too. There were some dodgy areas, and pegs, but we’d caught enough fish to come up with some ideas.

What was evident though, was that this was going to be a bonus fish event, with the first hour and last hour the main show! Our approach was evolving and come our pre-National Zoom meeting we had a really good chat.

We wanted to keep things simple, be totally respectful of that first hour and give ourselves the best chance of making the most of those first few bites.

It soon became clear that bread was our fancied starter – fed on a 2.5/3ft line at about 11 metres and then a longer line in a foot of water or to a feature. That was it – the simplest start to a day ever. Big punches – 6mm – to avoid small fish and stack the bonus fish odds in our favour. A ball of liquidised bread on both those lines was all we’d do for the first hour (with top-ups after boats), and then feed a worm line down the track and a groundbait line after that. The aim was

to catch a skimmer or five early, spend the next three hours catching what you could and then start the match again with bread on the same starting lines for the last hour – when the skimmers had proven to show up again. It was as simple as that, and if we got it right, the rest was down to the draw gods!

I quite like the pre-match draw, which has been a ‘thing’ in recent times.

After the ‘Facebook Live’ team draw, we assessed our pegs – as much to ensure we knew where we were

team, I was away from some flyers, but not in the worst part of the section.

Peg C38 put me on a bend near Heyford Fishery – amazingly just seven pegs from where I’d fished a canal pairs just three weeks prior. I remembered it being a decent area and hoped 2kg was possible, which I expected would be great.

I started as per the team plan and first chuck on my 3ft line with a 6mm punch was a 100g roach, followed by a 50g skimmer and then a lumpy skimmer of about 750g. For the last six

“On arriving at our pegs it was very clear our maps were ‘very indicative’, and none of us were where we thought. But we still had a job to do.” driving as to what we might catch! Pooling our recently learned venue knowledge with our ‘indicative’ maps and some local info from captain Steve Welford’s mate, left most of us very upbeat. However, on arriving at our pegs it was very clear our maps were ‘very indicative’, and none of us were where we thought. But we still had a job to do.

I guess my day was typical of many in the

Nationals I’ve always lost a decent skimmer; lucky to hook them I guess but not lucky enough to keep them, and this was in the back of mind as I knew how it normally went – it would be valuable if I could get it in the net. Thankfully I got this one out, although it took some time, and I was soon back out for a few more roach and another much smaller skimmer. The lads to my left hadn’t had many fish but what they did catch were quality; those to my right seemed to be struggling.

And then it was 12 o’clock, I’d got about a kilo, the bites all but disappeared (true to form) and I was determined to try for another 20 minutes before attempting to catch anything else I could and add to my eventual points

We decided on bread rather as did many teams in than a groundbait approach, the end. Liquidised all ow free top-ups and prov ided a visual attractan ed risk t for those lumpy skimmers.

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| 97

Team Talk

tally. One of my rotated looks on my shallow line at about 75 minutes resulted in a lost big fish, likely a foul hooked skimmer on double pinkie that went off like a train – that was a shame! So then I settled in with a strung out rig to catch some roach on squatts right over, which to be fair I managed with some success. I lost another big fish on that, all I saw was my dacronnector disappear into some weed – that was a shame too! Yet another National with lost skimmers to add to my ever increasing list!

I reckon I’d put another 1kg in the net coming into the last hour, which left me with a decision to make. Fish for skimmers and have a chance of possibly another kilo or continue catching roach for another 500g? I’d kind of made my mind up on this during the day and was desperate to give myself a chance of a great result – that’s what you have to do in Nationals, they’re not won with 10 okay results!

So out came my punches and in went my bread.

What I hadn’t bargained for was 22 boats in that last hour – every one of them I hoped would be the last. In the end it was a write-off and I added just one small roach to my weight. The scales had me down as 1,900g, I was happy enough for team points but hadn’t really done enough from where I was. Another 500g was possible, at least, and not continuing to fish for roach cost me that for sure – but we make our choices and hindsight is a marvellous thing! I was halfway with 21 points, had a relatively enjoyable day but knew I’d struggled with a lack of practice, a lack of punch experience on the canal and even my elastic choice caught me out.

So how had the team

98 | Match Fishing

done? The WhatsApp messages flowed. There were some tales of woe – the pegs that could/should have been, but all bar two of our anglers had more than a kilo. If the pre-match predictions were right we might have done well?

Top performer for us was Rob Durrant who showed his canal class with a very respectable 2,430g from E17 for ninth in his section.

Eight hand sized skimmers on the punch and then a couple more later on a groundbait line – and a few small fish for good measure.

I read a Facebook post the week before the National that

I’d never have dreamed of a catch shot like this from the canal before the day, but it still wasn’t enough really.

Did I make the right decisions?

Top points scorer for us was canal legend Rob Durrant with 2,430g.

Wayne Easter on his way to a hard earned 780g on J38.

predicted any team with 10 anglers catching a kilo or more would win it. It was slammed down for being unrealistic, that the number of blanks would be embarrassing and that the match would be a disaster.

Was it really that bad?

Well there were just two blanks (in fact they were more accurately DNWs, as they were anglers that didn’t fish), 290 anglers had

more than a kilo, the top 15 averaged 9kg and the top 10 teams were separated by just 43 points. Yes most of the weights were bigger fish, but they were there to catch.

As is always true, every match is there to be won, the

best teams shine and there are always methods to get right. A two-week shutdown probably helped the venue to remain buoyant but it has to be concluded that this National was far better than any had hoped. A big

on to Tom Noton is moving good – y sle rn Ba n na Dren all! us m luck mate fro e on no r pe pa [Middle] On t bu , tch ma d ba a can call this ! es bit there weren’t many t bu g, ba d [Bottom] A mixe s int po 50 – ort not a bad eff d to be. from where we wante www.

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well done to the stewards who were great and Northampton Nene Angling Club who were perhaps a little bit out of their comfort zone, running such a big event on a tricky venue – both logistically and fishing wise. Hats off to C&RT and the club for their efforts to aid the recovery in silver fish populations in recent years. I hope this will result in more interest in local canal fishing and repay them for their hard work!

A brilliant well done to Sensas Devizes MG who averaged an amazing 3kg a man, winning by 15 points with 301. It was a very close contest – with Cadence Superteam and Tri-Cast Rochdale just one point from a medal. It’s great to see a fresh name at the top of the pile – well done lads! They were also one of only two teams to all catch more than a kilo a man, Tri-Cast Rochdale being

A-Nomic handle grip/reel seat to match hand grip shape Seamless parabolic action S.F.A. smooth flow assist lightweight guides K-style guides on the feeder models to stop line twist

the other – those pre-match predictions were bang on! If you missed out on the day there was some brilliant coverage on Facebook live (available to catch up on the Canal & River Trust Angling and Catch More Media Facebook pages).

Finally, we had to say goodbye to young Tom Noton this month – who moved on to the mighty Drennan Barnsley. Tom has been a great angler for us, a lovely lad, fishing wizard and great mate to everyone in the team. We knew it would happen one day but we hoped to keep him long enough to see another Trent National, but it wasn’t to be. He’s been a great influence on the team and helped us all catch more fish. Good luck Tom, slide on brother!

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Bait Clinic

GET YOUR QUESTIONS IN! Check out the Match Fishing Magazine Facebook page regularly for your chance to enter your questions for our panel of bait experts!

WHAT YOU CAN WIN! The top question wins a Dynamite bait package worth £25.94, and three runnersup each receive a pack worth £12.97.

Bait Clinic We’ve teamed up with Dynamite Baits and its team of top anglers to answer your bait-related questions and help you catch more fish.

CHANGING BAITS ratio as I go through a session to see how the fish respond.

When it goes really cold however, I would just use pellets on the Method coupled with a slightly larger hook bait such as a Speedy Washter in Nick Speed Says 5 or 7mm. It’s easier to keep During the warmer months your bait nice and tight for I like to use mostly all those wary fish and when groundbait in my mix but when the water is cooler I will using them with a Hybrid feeder you will get bites a add more pellets. I like a ratio lot quicker as the fish will of about 80 per cent pellets have less choice without bait and 20 per cent groundbait in autumn when the water starts wafting off all over the bottom.

When using pellets in my to cool down as the groundbait mix I like to colour mine using also helps as a binder. I keep the Swim Stim pellet soaks, both separate in tubs, using particularly in green as it helps a third tub as the mixing tub for application. This is so I can camouflage the pellets on the bottom. alter the pellets to groundbait Now that autumn is on its way should I switch from loading my Method feeder with groundbait to pellets instead?

Tom Wick

1ST PRIZE WINNER

RUNNERPRIZE UP

LIGHTEN THE LOAD R NERI don’t want to carry too manyUNPdifferent RIZE UP bags of groundbaits over several fields to a 6ft deep river peg. What’s a good general mix that isn’t too heavy to carry?

Simon Carter

Rob Perkins Says I would use Silver X Roach Black, it’s a good allround groundbait for rivers. It’s a dark colour, making it unobtrusive on the bottom and fish will settle over it happily. It’s sticky enough to be used for balling in on its own and will carry a fair amount of loose feed without any additional binders. It can be mixed up on the bank easily if you add water gradually, so you can carry it dry to your peg.

It’s the groundbait I carry myself on the River Tyne where there are a few long walks and I just mix it on the bank.

100 | Match Fishing

COLOUR CONUNDRUM

RUNNE PRIZRE-UP

The commercial fishery I visit has a fishery feed pellets only rule but anything goes on the hook.

Should I use the same or a different colour, say red, when fishing the bomb to stand out from the feed pellets and can the fish see the colours in the muddy brown water?

Len Miller

help them be picked out quicker. I do believe colours can be massive in terms of what you catch; I don’t carry too many but definitely have a few red or natural coloured pellets for a bomb or various coloured Washters/Wowsers for the Method.

Alex Dockerty Says Another key consideration would be the size This is a brilliant question as most of the venues I fish have the same fishery pellet rule, but you of your hook bait. Does it stand out slightly from the feed without being too blatantly can use your own hook baits. Unfortunately, obvious it’s attached to a hook? there is no definitive answer and it is very Lastly, texture can be important. Often when much a case of trial and error on the day as to fishing the pole we consider soft pellets as well which the best hook bait on the bomb would be. However, I do have a few favourites that go as hard… so why not do the same with the bomb? Durable Hookers are tough enough to everywhere with me. cast out and as the water temperature cools off The first are Robin Red pellets in 4mm, 6mm this is definitely something to consider as soft and 8mm sizes. These are brilliant due to the contrast in colour to the feed bait, which should textured baits often come to the fore.

MAKE ’EM BIG?

Although I think in some circumstances it’s definitely worth trying big baits, I think as match anglers we have a lot of things against us that don’t help when targeting our quarry and that means that we have to often scale our tackle and also our bait back to compensate. You have to remember that many specimen anglers can choose the day they fish and even the

NICK SPEED Speedy is not only a top angler but also a high-level chef.

ROB WOOTTON A serial big-match winner, Rob is one of the very best anglers around

ALEX DOCKERTY Young angling coach who is forging a great career in angling

RUNNE PRIZRE-UP

The pool I fish on is regularly fished by carp anglers who use great big boilies, but we seem to favour 8mm or even 6mm pellets. Is it worth trying big baits in a match too?

Tim Potter

Rob Wootton Says

THE PANEL

BEN FISK No stranger to the big-money finals, can do it all

time of day that they decide to sit on the bank, whereas we match anglers are often fishing during the middle and often the worst part of the day. Specimen guys also have fewer time constraints so are willing to accept a bite every now and then from a great big monster, whereas to put together a match winning net of fish it’s usually about being busy and by being a little less selective we can

keep putting fish in the net during the tough times of the session.

To sum it up I’d only resort to specimen sized baits if I wanted to avoid hordes of nuisance fish and I knew the venue I was fishing was rigid with fish; other than that I’d be sticking to my smaller baits and putting regular fish in the net while trying to alter my feeding pattern if small fish became an issue.

Ben Fisk Says For proper carp I rarely use expanders.

Fishing and feeding hard 4, 6 or even 8mm pellets is a very positive way of fishing and it’s selective for decent fish. Even in winter I’ll often fish a banded 6mm or 4mm over the same feed. The only exception to this is if it’s exceptionally difficult or if I’m fishing to a feature in less than two feet of water, feeding

AIDAN MANSFIELD Rising match star destined for the top of the commercial fishing tree

MATT PILLAY Never afraid to attack a swim with a bit of bait

HARD OR SOFT? When should I think about changing from hard pellets on the hook to soft expanders?

Dave Reach

TONY CURD Been around for years and one of the best attacking anglers out there

micro pellets. Hard pellets do not seem to work very well in very shallow water when micro pellets or groundbait feed is best.

For very small 1lb carp or F1s then expanders are very important. I start to switch to expanders typically around November time. In the warmer months you can’t always use expanders because of problems with silver fish but when the water gets cooler they become less of a problem.

Hard pellets can be a little too much for F1s in cold weather and fishing soft pellets you might pick up some big skimmers too, which can be very welcome in winter.

ROB PERKINS The all-rounder, Rob will turn his hand to all styles of fishing

SAM COLLETT A real star for the future and current England international

ANDY GELDART Been there, done it, won it

| 77

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OCTOBER ISSUE

2021 AVAIL

ABLE

FRIDAY,

OCTOBER 8TH

TONING DOWN RICHARD CHAVE IS ON THE RIVER TONE IN SEARCH OF CHUB GET THE EDGE ALEX DOCKERTY SCALES DOWN HIS MARGIN FISHING WITH IMPRESSIVE RESULTS BREAM DREAM NICK SPEED HAS SOME TOP ADVICE FOR CATCHING BREAM VENUE DETECTIVE ANDY MAY CONTINUES HIS TRAVELS AS HE SAMPLES THE COUNTRY’S BEST FISHERIES • CONTENTS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Matt Godfrey

Another hectic one has passed but it’s been a cracking month for our Ginger Ninja yet again, tackling the Tees and the Division One National on a dreaded narrow canal!

My GUC peg in the Division One National…

Narrow National!

It isn’t very often that I DON’T look forward to fishing an event, but this month’s Division One National was something I was feeling a little pessimistic towards, if I’m honest. I’m not a fan of narrow canals and the Grand Union at Northampton is a typical narrow canal. There was a lot of reports that the fishing would be tricky with very few small fish, and a lot of boats. Some locals told me to expect up to 100 boats during a match… err, no thank you.

The honest reason why I personally don’t like this kind of venue is because if you draw a bad peg I feel that there is very little you can do

104 | Match Fishing

to draw in and attract fish, compared to say a big river or lake where there is lots of water to go at. When you have a far bank anywhere from 11 to 14 metres away and anglers either side, the fact of the matter is that it’s tricky to pull in fish that aren’t already there, and I find that quite limiting and frustrating.

If you’re on a good peg however, with plenty of room and cover, it’s great because the fish tend to live there, not move too much and are catchable… and that’s exactly what my swim was like on the recent National. I had plenty of room to my right as I was on the edge of a big gap

and I had a lovely bush overhanging opposite that looked sure to hold some fish. The day was great to be honest, and I had a really good start catching some chunky perch and an odd skimmer on maggots over some groundbait at 11 metres, before the boats started to really stir things up.

I then ventured further across and re-fed in shallower water out of the way of the disturbance, and basically carried on catching. The odd little skimmer, odd roach, odd perch – in fact I had a little chub, a little dace, a tommy ruffe, a hybrid and a rudd.

Basically what I’m saying is I was sat on an aquarium, and I went on to catch 5.900kg,

… and my catch, worth 38 points.

Silver for the Barnsley team on

the day.

which was enough to come fifth in the 42-peg section and get really good points for the team. Plus, I had a great day’s fishing on a narrow canal… which doesn’t normally happen for me.

Team-wise, we had plenty of really good results, with a lot of us in the top 10 in the section. We were actually getting quite excited because a few people had mentioned that Barnsley wouldn’t do any good on a narrow canal like this. However, a couple of lads had a bit of a stinker, and in a National you can very rarely carry a poor one, never mind two.

As it turned out, the couple of bad draws did cost us and we were agonisingly close, finishing in second place and winning a silver medal!

I must admit, I was absolutely gutted because I felt that our team winning on this venue would really have proved something, and it would mean we’d won THREE golds at Division One in a row, which has never been done before.

Nevertheless, a National Silver is something not to be sniffed at, and a big well done must go out to the winners, Devizes. Awesome men, congratulations!

River Tees Practice I put quite a bit of effort into venturing 100 miles north to fish the River Tees this month, as I had an upcoming festival on there. Thankfully, my good mate James Dent lives a stone throw from the river and he managed to get me on a couple of super league rounds up there for a practice. To be honest, I just love fishing it, it’s a fantastic venue.

The practice matches were great, I caught plenty of fish and more importantly learnt loads for the festival. The first match I drew a shallow peg (13 feet at 13 metres is VERY shallow on the Tees!) and caught 23lb odd of skimmers to win the section and give me some good ideas about how best to catch the skimmers, what groundbait to use etc. The following week I was on a totally different bit and caught a load of small fish on the pole, which turned out to be really important in the festival. The main thing that I learnt this day was that you needed to fish close in for small fish to rest your feeder line or long pole line, then every time you went on them, you’d catch one. It was great

Day one on the Tees festiva l.

practice for the festival and 14lb odd was enough for another section win too.

Two Tees On The Bounce!

I was buzzing for the three-day 90-peg River Tees festival after my practising matches, and the first day couldn’t have been a better start for me. I drew Peg 181 at Yarm, which is uncomfortably deep to be honest and I didn’t fancy it. The 14 feet of water that I was looking for was at just six metres out, and the slope that I was fishing on was severe. In the middle of the river just 25 metres

25lb of ‘skimmers’.

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 105

Matt Godfrey

Another 25lb weight. r Day two on the Tees, anothe . great looking peg

Day three out, I had a count of 14 on a 1.5oz distance lead. I think they forgot to put the bottom in there!

Sticking to what I learnt in practice though, I fished for small fish in the edges in around nine feet of water, then targeted skimmers at six metres in 14 feet, and it went to plan great. I say skimmers, this day my six ‘skimmers’ and 6lb of small fish went 25lb to win the section and finish fourth in the match overall. What a start, and yes I think they were fully fledged bream, to be honest!

Day two and I drew a nice peg in the shape of number 4 at Bowesfield. Quite a few people said it was a feeder swim and plumbing up it was easy to see why. Anywhere from 40 to 60 metres across the river, you had a nice depth of 15 feet up to 10 feet, and it was sure to be a line I needed to target. I did however, put a short pole line in for small fish, and find the ever faithful 14 feet at nine metres on the pole too, where it was actually quite flat and plumbed up nicely.

A good start on small fish got me off the mark, but after two hours I hadn’t got a skimmer. Ringing around a few people it was obviously a bit harder, but by staying patient and rotating lines I managed to find a few on the feeder. Then, with an hour and a half to go, I also started

106 | Match Fishing

catching odd ones on and 13lb for the long pole too, which second in the surprised a few of the section. locals. I ended weighing exactly the same as the day before, 25lb, and won the section and match overall.

Day three saw me on Peg 124 at Bowesfield, which plumbed-up lovely.

I had nine feet at nine metres, 13 feet at 13 metres, and it was around 18 feet on a feeder line at 20 metres so I felt I had all depths covered. After three days of hammer, the river definitely shut down a little and I felt it was much harder with fewer skimmers feeding.

With section points and the festival on my mind, I just needed to keep catching fish and feeding the net, so I spent a lot This is what it’s all of time targeting abo ut for me – great small roach, perch fi shin g and great and little skimmers mates. on the two pole lines. In the bright sun and clear conditions, you couldn’t hammer them and I had to literally catch two or three, then move swims. In the last hour, I’d heard there was an odd skimmer been caught, and having not

been on the feeder but occasionally having a few casts to feed it, I had to give it a go. In the last hour I had a run of small skimmers, a couple of hybrids and an eel to boost my weight to 13-8-0, enough for second in the section behind Craig Stockton.

My four points were enough to win the festival overall for a second year running, which I really was made up with. Ian Exley had the same points but less weight, well done mate. All in all though, the craic and social on the Tees is simply outstanding, I absolutely love it up there and Dave Smiddy runs an incredible event… I really hope he keeps it going for next year!

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Events

Little Geary’s produced fish from the start.

Our popular event for the over 60s took place at Packington Fisheries recently, and what a great day it was again. e first published details of this match in our February issue and it sold out all 80 tickets within a week. After consulting Packington’s fishery manager John Burchell we increased the amount of pegs to 100… and once again the new tickets sold out within days.

The veterans’ scene for anglers aged 60 and over is one of the most keen and dedicated in match fishing and we’re thinking of possibly increasing the amount of events for them next year… watch this space.

Back to the match and as Jake Fowles from event sponsor Sonubaits and match organiser David Haynes turned up at 8am to be nice and early for the 9am draw the car park was rammed with keen and eager anglers’ vans and cars! Sonubaits and Preston Innovations angler Neil McKinnon also came along to lend a hand and give out advice where required.

With plenty of cash up for grabs, Sonubaits goodies for section winners and framers, and a brand new trophy,

W

p There are some cracking car at Packington.

108 | Match Fishing

Siblings B is a great F1 water.

Take your time, it could be valuable. there was everything to play for. The match was spread over most of the fishery’s lakes, including Gearys, Little Gearys, Molands, Siblings A and B, Anniversaries and Willow. As the long queue snaked off into the distance the draw got underway, with John drawing the pegs for each angler. Anglers had come from far and wide for this match; some had never fished the venue before, others were from the fishery’s own thriving vets section, but information about each other’s pegs was freely shared around and bait bought for the day ahead.

The talk was of carp and the big F1s that Packington is well known for (just how big we’ll see later on) and as the anglers left for their pegs the rain came down, along with quite a naughty wind.

On all the years we’ve run this match in August the weather has often been

Barry Upperton caught well on Anniversaries.The man in red tucked away in the distance is Phil Dayman.

unkind to us, but this was to prove the last of it as the sun came out and was with us for most of the day, against all the forecasts.

It definitely shines on the righteous…

Most who knew the venue had wanted a draw on Little Gearys or the point pegs on Molands, which is exactly where last year’s Totting up the result s. champion Harry Billing had drawn, on Peg 42. Little Gearys did indeed set the early pace, but Siblings B was also throwing up plenty of F1s. Once again many methods were on show – this really is a fishery where if you bring your A game in your favoured method, it will usually work. As many wise men say, always fish to your Great bait goodies for the framers strengths. and section winners.

Early leaders appeared to be Harry,

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 109

Events

A 12lb F1 for Paul Davidge – what a fish!

rst half.

Graeme Block had a quiet fi

Ian Tomlinson with his fifth placed 79lb10oz.

“It was turning into a five-horse race for the top spot but there was section money and pride on the line too, so the fishing remained hard and competitive to the end.” who was catching F1s and carp steadily on the Method, and Ian Tomlinson on Molands 4. Meanwhile, tucked away in one of the many nooks and crannies of the scenic Anniversaries lake, Phil Dayman was quietly going about his business, feeding his nets with a procession of fish. Ray Redwood on Little Gearys 7 was catching well on the bomb and pellet, but one angler who wasn’t going well was Graeme Block on nearby Peg 9. However, with two hours to go his match suddenly took off as he plundered his margin swim for a stream of F1s and carp, rapidly overtaking all those around him.

It was turning into a five-horse race for the top spot among these anglers, but there was section money and pride on the line too, so the fishing remained hard and competitive to the end. Over on

TOP FIVE 1 Graeme Block Harry Billing 2 3 Phil Dayman Ray Redwood 4 5 Ian Tomlinson

110 | Match Fishing

Little Gearys 9 Molands 42 Anniversaries 6 Little Gearys 7 Molands 4

Molands Peg 60 Paul Davidge had had a quiet match until his tip went round and it was “fish on”. There are plenty of big carp in Molands and it seemed he was attached to one of these, but after a hard fight he managed to net a monster F1 weighing a huge 12lb on the nose – what an incredible fish, and one of the biggest ever seen at the fishery, or indeed anywhere!

As the all-out was called, the scales went round straightaway, with the fishery’s dedicated staff swinging into well practised action – and many thanks to them and John Burchell for all their help. Together with the fantastic fishing it’s no wonder we keep coming back here every year.

The ever consistent Harry weighed in 97lb

128-13-0 97-8-0 97-2-0 92-3-0 79-10-0

8oz to take a narrow lead over Phil, just a few ounces behind on 97lb 2oz.

Could he make it a historic two wins in succession? Over on Little Gearys Ray put 92lb 3oz on the scales, but what would next-to-weigh Graeme’s late run of fish be worth? A fantastic 128lb 13oz, that’s what, shooting him to the top of the leaderboard into the gold medal position, and that’s how it stayed. Just turned 60, this was the first time Graeme was eligible to fish the match and on his first visit to the fishery he was the 2021 Veterans Champion. Not a bad record.

(From left) The top five: Harry Billi ng, Ray Redwood, Graeme Block, Phil Dayman, Ian Tomlinson.

Winner’s Verdict

????

Graeme Block, Little Gearys 9, 128lb 13oz

MOLANDS 2 Ian Covey 4 Ian Tomlinson 8 William Woollcott 12 Stu McGuinness 13 Ron Savage 15 Roy Beasley 17 Paul Wakeley 19 Phil Mason 21 Neil Rogerson 23 Allan Oram

24-6-0 79-10-0 17-5-0 23-3-0 62-10-0 50-8-0 14-7-0 DNW 26-7-0 11-6-0

25 27 29 31 33 39 41 42 43

Les Ramsden Dave Duggan Paul Jones Andrew Price Gary Lakin Bob Calcott Roger Hatton Harry Billing Paul Chapman

23-0-0 49-4-0 44-1-0 24-13-0 13-7-0 32-2-0 19-5-0 97-8-0 DNW

44 45 46 48 52 54 56 58 60

Ray Quiney Kim Naish Not Drawn Steve Davis Dave Pickering Richard Grops Ant Bird Kevin Folwell Paul Davidge

31-6-0 36-3-0

GEARYS 7 9 11 13 15 16 18 19

Mike Burton Vince O’Connor Kele Redwood Ant Smith Martin Meek John Webb Michael Borrows John Ireland

22-8-0 48-2-0 52-8-0 DNW DNW 56-3-0 74-2-0 24-6-0

20 21 23 24 27 30 31 33 36

Andrew Taylor Trevor Price Mick Kelly Terry Gibbons Ron Harris Ian White Pete Tatley Dave Cowburn John Waterhouse

DNW 29-8-0 DNW DNW 20-0-0 34-4-0 64-13-0 22-6-0 24-8-0

LITTLE GEARYS 1 Philip Auger 3 Keith Webb 5 Ray Stevens 7 Ray Redwood 8 Roy Coniff

62-14-0 62-14-0 DNW DNW DNW 24-6-0

48-13-0 37-5-0 49-11-0 92-3-0 53-13-0

5th overall Section (D)

Section (D)

2nd overall

Section

Section

Section

4th overall

9 10 11 12 13

Graeme Block Derek Hartshorn Ray Evans Bob Cheeseman Charles Booty

128-13-0 67-3-0 52-15-0 27-2-0 33-2-0

15 17 19 21 23 25 26 27 28 29

Michael Tonks Michael Lager Ernie Sattler Kevin Simpson Burt McGann George Bullock Roy Butterfield Steve Bridges Chris Mayne Barry Jackson

21-7-0 21-14-0 37-8-0 60-0-0 60-12-0 50-4-0 52-0-0 36-8-0 23-4-0 20-10-0

Section

20-0-0 26-22-0 97-2-0 17-5-0

3rd overall

ANNIVERSARIES 2 Allan Holdsworth 4 Richard Allin 6 Phil Dayman 8 Steven Smith 10 Not Drawn 15 Dave Neal 17 Barry Upperton 19 Malcom Fowler 21 James Finch 23 Martin Robinson

26-2-0 52-7-0 44-10-0 38-4-0 34-6-0

SIBLINGS A 2 William Davis 5 Les Moody 7 Kelvin Wetherell 9 Barry Ellison 13 Paul Edmondson 15 Mick Gibbs 17 Mick White 19 Arthur Plumb

DNW 23-0-0 DNW 24-8-0 DNW 9-11-0 49-14-0 61-2-0

SIBLINGS B 3 Phil Young 5 John Brooks 7 Allan Dolby 9 John White 11 Keith Rolfe 13 Allan Ellison 15 Steven Downs 17 Mark Ord

DNW 65-11-0 39-14-0 16-6-0 17-15-0 28-5-0 39-6-0 17-12-0

WILLOW 1 2 3 5 6 8 10 12

Richard Brain Not Drawn Not Drawn Pete Heaven Martin Andrews Lance Burford Terry Fell Graeme Fern

1st overall Section (DD)

RESULTS

RESULTS

Although I’ve never fished here before I was pleased with my draw as I was told it was a good area, and a friend advised me to use dead maggots and groundbait for the F1s.

I had a very slow start to the match, catching just a few bits and pieces in the first two hours.

From around 1.30pm I fed the right hand margin in the shade and half an hour later went on it for the last two hours.

I caught big F1s – the smallest was about 3lb and the biggest 7lb – together with a few carp up to 10lb, fishing in three feet of water with a bunch of dead reds on the hook, potting dead maggots and groundbait, feeding four pints of maggots in all and just half a bag of groundbait. I used black Hydro, 0.20mm main line with a 0.24mm hooklength to a size 14 hook under a 4x14 float.

I really enjoyed the day and will definitely be back next year to defend my title.

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| 111

Billy Makin

BEFORE

TIME PA RT

BEGAN

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Billy Makin is a writer and novelist now semi-retired in Thailand, where he owns and runs a couple of ‘girlie’ bars for ex-pats and holidaymakers.

During his teenage years he became known as “The boy with the golden arm” and later became an iconic match angler of the 1970s and 1980s, winning both Matchman Of The Year and becoming BBC Hooked Champion. His commercial float-making business produced the famous Canal Grey and his fishery, a first of its kind, was the catalyst for the commercial water revolution. Still called Makins Fishery, it is no longer owned by Billy but is still a premier water to this day. Each month, Billy recounts his life and stories from the golden age of match fishing in these pages for us to enjoy.

F

ollowing on from last month’s article where I attempted to explain to modern day match anglers the rather subtle if perhaps dubious art of talking to fish, I guess that I really should redeem myself by proving that I am not yet quite ready for the funny farm.

Despite the odd sip or two of Tiger beer, I assure you that my mental capacity is as sharp as it ever was, and my fishing brain is still operational during occasional bouts of aged lucidity.

The long-distance vision has held up well but hooks most certainly appear to have shrunk in size over the years.

As I have been writing in a historical vein for the past two years, I thought it time

112 | Match Fishing

to move into the present century while once again pushing the psychological aspect of match fishing; something that many anglers ignore completely.

Fishing and thinking about fishing are two completely different things.

Every item of tackle, no

I see little more than a series of clones – a string of identical garden gnomes all lined up doing the same thing and all using the same tackle and approach.

Every match fishing venue has become little more than a fashion parade, a catwalk of exhibitionism, an

slight depth adjustments will cover every inch of the swim?

Why would anyone want to erect a great lump of scaffolding in a canal and not on the towpath?

Every fish in the swim will be able to see your every movement. You don’t

“Fashion is for women, not match fishermen, and only serves to distract you from the main task in hand, and that is catching more fish than anyone else.” matter what the venue, conditions, or species, can now be bought off the shelf and other than financial restrictions or physical limitations, everyone is equal.

Therein lies the problem.

From my outsider’s view,

assembly line of scaffolding masquerading as seating contraptions that are assumed to be absolutely indispensable to catching fish.

Why would anyone need to set up a dozen top sections when a series of

stand in the middle of a field to shoot pigeons; you camouflage and hide.

Fashion is for women, not match fishermen, and only serves to distract you from the main task in hand, and that is catching more fish than anyone else – not

looking prettier or poncier.

I only resumed fishing over here in Thailand last year after a near 30-year break and was fortunate enough to acquire a stateof-the-art tackle box of the Shakespeare/Galaxy variety and vintage.

Younger anglers may scoff at the antiquity and assume that something

more junk than the average tackle shop sells in a whole season. Lee is not a marathon runner but with a fair wind could probably walk up to 50 yards if there was a bottle of beer at the finishing line.

Not so with his tackle.

Lee has yet to fish for more than three hours in a five-hour match; the

sets of tackle and two sets of rods. When we became rich, Dad bought a threewheeled Reliant van (Del Boy style) and together with Norman, we plundered the Midlands match circuit, and still had enough room for me to sleep off the previous evening’s excesses. Some things never change, only the date and the hair.

“Perhaps I am being a little harsh but I think it important to get you THINKING before I move on to the main point of the article, and that is just that – THINKING.” that can actually be lifted without the aid of a forklift truck would immediately put me at a disadvantage.

Far from it, there are times when I consider filling it with rocks in order to remind me of how much unnecessary junk I used to take to a UK match during my match fishing days.

Now Lee Butler, one of our exclusive Thai match fishing group, is completely the opposite – he is a tackle tart of the first order and arrives at the match with

Chinese have built multistorey hotels in less time than it takes him to set up his tackle box, the situation becoming so bad that he had to spend a king’s ransom on a pick-up truck so that it could house the whole assembly, and it now takes three of us to carry a hundredweight of metal arms, legs and trays to his swim.

Dad and I travelled thousands of miles on the back of his Lambretta scooter, together with two

On a couple of occasions we crossed the Pennines and ventured into the foreboding Yorkshire hinterland despite rumours that Clegg and his henchmen were still deep into cannibalism.

Okay, enough of the criticism; perhaps I am being a little harsh but I think it important to get you THINKING before I move on to the main point of the article, and that is just that – THINKING. Fish are very simple

creatures and unlike humans do not pass on knowledge to their offspring.

They do however, appear to have a memory somewhat greater than the supposed six seconds that is often attributed to a goldfish. Is it a memory or is it the same selfpreservation instinct found in all creatures?

I rather think the latter; once they have been caught a few times, this survival instinct kicks in and they become ever more difficult to catch.

A state-of-the-art collection of scaffolding, complete with pretty colours and logos, does nothing to make catching them any easier.

During the latter part of my ownership of Makin Fisheries, several patterns emerged, and as I wasn’t fishing myself I was able to view developments from outside the box.

My mind would often revert back to my younger, formative years when I was an obsessed teenager, intrigued by an art that was quite unique in the

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| 113

Billy Makin

You don’t see many of these on the Oxford Canal.

Billy’s match fishing career, from the beginning… sporting world. All other sports involved competing against fellow sportsmen, not so match fishing; the competitor was unseen, the only vision being through the mind’s eye.

I have mentioned before the need to “see beneath the water” and make no apology for doing so again.

The pattern that emerged as I viewed the various techniques adopted by the thousands of match anglers that visited my lakes was interesting, as was the everchanging response of the fish.

Once a fish had been hooked by a certain method on a number of occasions, it became wary and extremely difficult to catch, despite the fact that it wanted to feed. The perfect example of this was surface fishing.

Initially, a piece of floating crust caught everything that swam; this didn’t last for long in the match lakes, finer lines

and smaller hooks became essential, and still the fish wised up.

The anglers moved on and began presenting the bread on the pole so that the line was completely out of the water. Bingo, they were once again in business but not for long, the culprits being ghost carp.

Ghosties are gifted with a degree of intelligence (maybe caution) way beyond normal carp, one pure white beauty in Lake Four evading capture for almost 10 years.

So how did the crafty blighters solve the problem?

Simple, they smashed their tails into every piece of floating bread until it broke into small pieces; only then did they feed.

Perhaps the most intriguing situation I came across was the much-hated winter frost. You just knew that a blank was far more likely than me ever buying you a drink.

All of Billy’s seven books and novels are available from Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk

114 | Match Fishing

There was no solution – everything was tried and nothing worked, despite there being so many carp in the lake. It was highly likely that at any one time at least a dozen fish could see your bait.

As always, the man who could see below the water solved the problem – inevitably that man was Andy Findlay.

Andy reckoned that any form of feeding simply turned off the fish – possibly even sent out danger signals, so his approach was simplicity itself. A single grain of sweetcorn (this in winter) lying on the bottom for long enough would eventually be eaten, the caveat being that it must not be disturbed.

I shook my head in disbelief as he once again took the lion’s share of the spoils in my 240-peg winter league. Andy had five casts during the five hours and caught five fish.

How many of you can leave a match bait in the water for over an hour without checking on it?

Certainly not me, nor could I ever go five hours without

feeding even one crumb of groundbait nor one grain of sweetcorn.

Perhaps I was being facetious, maybe even a little harsh with my tongue-in-cheek criticism of modern-day tackle fashion and my mate Lee. It looks impressive and if it makes you feel good then go for it; it’s probably the best thing that has ever happened to the tackle trade.

Still, do not overlook the main objective – that will always be to catch more fish than your peers, and to do that, look below the water; talk to the fish – ask them questions.

You may never achieve the success of John Dean or Andy Findlay, but if it isn’t broke – don’t fix it. It worked for them and it will work for you.

Having been out of the country for around 20 years now, I have never met any of the modern superstars of the commercial circuit, but I bet you one thing.

They can see under the water and they talk to the fish. Perhaps they may describe it differently but I guarantee you that they both can and do.

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